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PREFACE. vii 



Of the Mammalia, the Indian i6 include 9 which are also Ethiopian. 

 Five species are also Asiatic, but not Indian, and seven species included 

 as Palasarctic occur only in Syria and Asia Minor. Those only elsewhere 

 found in Arabia Petraea are included as peculiar. 



Of these 113 species of Mammalia, a very much larger proportion 

 belongs to the Ethiopian region than is found to be the case in the other 

 classes, viz., 34 out of 113, or about iV of the whole. Of these, 9 species, 

 including 6 Felidcc, a. hysena and a bat [Rhinopoiiia microphylhuii), are 

 equally Indian, to which region may also be assigned 4 others, two of 

 which, however, Caniclus drouicdai-ius and Bos bnbalns, introduced by 

 man, can scarcely claim enumeration ; and another, Asimis hcmippiis, 

 equally pertains to the Patearctic region, leaving only two doubtful 

 species, Gazella cora and Mtis prcstextus. The traces of Indian immigra- 

 tion or introduction are thus reduced to an infinitesimal quantity. 



Of the 34 mammalia which may be referred to the Ethiopian region, 

 and which are certainly not Palsearctic, 4 antelopes, 2 hares, and 8 small 

 rodents of the genera Acomys, Gerbillus, and Psammomys, are species 

 strictly desert in their habitat, and therefore with powers of traversing the 

 great African and Arabian sand-wastes, and settling themselves on their 

 northern frontier. 



The larger Fclidcr, in which Palestine is so rich, possessing 6 species 

 besides the Palaearctic Felis pardina, are specifically identical in the two 

 regions, or if distinct, we have not yet ascertained to which races the 

 Palestine specimens belong. They may have arrived by way of Egypt, 

 or from the Euphrates valley. But there are more sedentary forms, as 

 Hcrpestes ichneumon, and the cats, which seem to point to an earlier 

 settlement than across the recent deserts. Besides, the transit from the 

 east is not more physically difficult or distant than from Africa ; yet we 

 find no indication of such immigration in this class. 



Of the 13 peculiar mammalian forms, three, Ursiis syriacus, Leptis 

 syriacus, and Sciurtts syriacus are merely modifications of Palaearctic 

 types ; six, Lepus sinaiiicus, Gerbillus tcrnitmts, Psamnwniys inyosui'us, 

 Acomys russatus, Mus prcctcxtus, Gazella arabica, are Ethiopian in their 

 character, and probably extend further into Arabia and East Africa. 

 Eliomys vielanitrus and Dipus Jiirtipes seem decidedly peculiar. One 

 species, Leptis [Enlagos) jtidecs, Gray — the hare of the Dead Sea basin — 



b—2 



