NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE 



Vol. XX. FEBRUARY 1913. No. 1. 



EXPEDITION TO THE CENTRAL WESTERN SAHARA. 



By ERNST IIARTERT, Ph.D. 

 Plates I.— Xr. and Map (PI. XII.). 



KXI'LANATION OF .SOMK AliAI! AND OTHEU WORDS f.SED IN" THE XAUUATIVE. 



Aiii. = source. (Water rising from tlie ground, artesian wells and others.) 



Berber = tbc original inhabitants o£ Africa Minor, to which the Kabyles, Sliauia, 



Zenata, Cliaamba, Toiiareg and others belong. 

 Jiir, plnral Hinr = artifieial wells, generally with artificial walls. 

 i?,ir4/ = rest-houses ; generally ii.sed for the rest-houses built by tlie French military 



autliorities, intended for ofticers or men, but also permitted to other Europeans. 

 C/miimbi, plural Chaamha = a desert tribe of Berber origin. B'ormerly dreaded robbers, 



like the louareg, now generally ])eacpfiil. E.'ccellent camel-men and travellers. 

 Ckott = salt lake, but mostly dry ; depression witli salt, wheie sometimes water stands 



after rain. 

 Dliomraii = Trarjanum niiilatum. I'lant which is very good food fur camels. 

 Erg {aho Are/;') = Region of the Sand-dunes. 



Foggara. plnral Feggaguvr = subterranean .aqueduct, in galleries, in the central .Sahara. 

 Gara, plural Gonr = '• witnesses," or remains of higher plateaus, in form of flat- 

 topped hills or mountains. 

 limira = larger or smaller pyramid-shapetl stoneheaps serving as landmarks, by which 



to find the way. 

 Ilammada = stony desert, rocky plateau. 



//«,«(. = wells dug in sandy soil or in rooks ; generally used for wells without artiticial 

 walls, but in the farther south used for almost all wells built by men. (Apparently 

 not Arab, hut Berber). 

 .Mrharl ~ riding camel — a special breed. 

 Okc^ = river, or in the Sahara more generally river-bed, as rivers there very seldom 



have water. 

 Scholia or Sehkho = depression with s.iltand salsolaeeons plants ; dry portions of Ciott, 



generally with some \'egetation, sometimes under water. 

 Tatha = acacias. 

 Tllmas = depression in an oued with water-holes ; water-holes. 



The spelling of the geographical names is generally that of the French maps by 

 I'rudhomme, Nio.\-, and Nardin. 



I. 



NARRATIVE. 



AFTER liaviiig mndc tliroe len<;-thy visits to Algcna, the ornithological rosuKs 

 of which have been imblished in No«itutcs Xooloyicae, vol. xviii. pp. 45('.-5;")0, 

 and having become well acfiuaiiit(ul with the birds of the Northern Algerian 

 Sahara, Mr. Waltei- Rothschild wished to extend our iinowledge of the fauna ot 

 the Western .Sahara farther sonthwards. He therefore asked me to make an 

 ex])edition to In-Salali, the principal oasis of Tidikelt, in the ceutre of the 

 1 



