8 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



We have abundant evidence of the former existence of the ereat Wild 

 Ox in Western Asia, and can with some accuracy fix the time of its final 

 extinction. It is spoken of familiarly in the Bible, where the word Re cm 

 is unfortunately rendered ' Unicorn,' down to the time of David, 

 B.C. looo : and afterwards only once, in a prophetical passage. On the 

 Assyrian monuments its chase is represented as the greatest feat of 

 hunting in the time of the earliest dynasties of Nineveh ; but does not 

 appear in those of the later period of the Assyrian monarchy at 

 Kuyonjik. It was seen and described by Caesar in Germany, in the 

 Hyrcinian forest ; and did not become extinct in Central Europe till the 

 Middle Ages. I obtained its teeth in bone-breccia in Lebanon, proving 

 its co-existence there with man. 



24. Bison urns. (L. Syst. Nat. i., p. 98.) Bison, or Lithuanian 

 Aurochs. 



The bones and teeth of this species have also been discovered in 

 company with those of the former in Lebanon. It is known to have had 

 an equally wide distribution in historic times, and even now is not quite 

 extinct, a few being preserved in Lithuania and also in the Caucasus. 



ORDER, RODENTIA. 



FAMILY, LEPORID.-E. 



25. Lcpus syriacus. Hemp, and Ehr. Symb. Phys. ii., t. 15. Heb. 

 n53>Nt. Arab, c^^^l, Aiiicb. 



The only Hare in the wooded and cultivated districts of Palestine. 

 Down the coast it is found from Lebanon and Hermon to Philistia. I 

 have also found it everywhere in the wooded and mountainous parts of 

 Northern Syria. It is very little smaller than the English Hare, measuring 

 about two inches less in total length and with rather shorter ears. It has 

 four young at a birth. It has not been noticed beyond Syria. 



26. Lcp7is siuaiticus. Hemp, and Ehr. Symb. Phys. ii., t. 15. 

 This species cannot be confounded with the preceding. It is much 



