clxi 
occur at Bou-Saada, Ain Sefra, Tougourt, Ghardaia, ete., 
nearly every group of oases having its own subspecies; the 
species is distributed from Senegambia and Morocco to Tunisia, 
a number of other species inhabiting Egypt, Persia and Central 
Asia. 
The aquatic fauna of the desert naturally is poor in species. 
Pools and wells are few and far between, and the Chotts are 
too salty and dry up to a large extent. However, the water 
which there exists is not entirely devoid of animal life. When 
the first artesian wells were struck in the region south of Biskra, 
the engineers were not a little astonished to find fish, a crab and 
snails brought up by the stream of water from the deep under- 
ground, and they were much puzzled to observe that none of 
the species were adapted to a life in the dark. We now know 
that the underground rivers and lakes are connected with 
open wells, ponds and little lakes, the breathing holes of the 
subterranean water, which are found here and there in the 
same region, and that the species thrown up in the artesian 
wells live a normal life in these open waters. The brooks and 
ponds in the oases are usually full of fish, which are left 
unmolested by the Arab, who is not fond of fish as an addition 
to his diet: Some of the desert fish have the peculiar habit of 
protecting the young by letting them take refuge in the 
parents’ mouth. 
We will not leave the Sahara without saying a word about 
the domesticated animals of the native population and their 
influence on the wild flora and fauna. The most prominent 
features of the landscape for the tourist new to the country 
are the vastness and desolation outside the oases and the 
strange appearance of the most useful domestic animal of the 
desert, the camel, a species not of African, but of West Asiatic 
origin. The Arab population of Southern Algeria is a com- 
paratively modern influx into the country, younger than the 
settlement of the Saxon in England, and the camel was already 
a domestic animal of the Berber tribes of the Sahara before 
the Arab arrived, whereas the horse and donkey were introduced 
into Mauretania by the invading Arab armies. Though the 
numbers of the camels in the Sahara are large and the animal 
when feeding often pulls up the plants with their roots, its 
destructiveness of plant life is nothing like that of the herds of 
PROC. ENT, SOC. LONT., V, 1921. L 
