ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 695 



"The oryx, which still exists in Trans- Jordan and the Hedjaz, 

 was in those days [the eighteenth century] to be found in con- 

 siderable numbers in Sinai also. To-day not one remains." (Jarvis, 

 1932, p. 201.) 



In 1936 this species was placed on the list of protected animals in 

 Trans-Jordan for a period of five years (Jour. Soc. Preservation 

 Fauna Empire, n. s., pt. 31, pp. 50-51, 1937). 



In 1909 Carruthers (1935, pp. 63-131) encountered this species 

 in the region of the Jabal Tubaiq, approximately 150-200 miles east 

 of the head of the Gulf of Akaba, and also farther south, at a point 

 30 miles north-northeast of Taima. One herd of 15 was sighted, and 

 there were said to be herds of as many as 20 to 30 individuals. Four 

 specimens were secured. 



"The sum total of our knowledge of the Arabian Oryx in the 

 year 1909 did not amount to very much, for although he had been 

 hunted throughout the ages either as a wild cow in the desert or as a 

 Unicorn through mythology, he had retained successfully his solitary 

 loneliness, and there is as much mystery attached to him to-day 

 as there was in the past " (Carruthers, 1935, p. 142). 



This author then presents (p. 142 et seq.) an extremely interesting 

 resume of the history of the species, from which there is space for 

 the quotation of only a few items. In 1528 Tenreiro encountered 

 "many wild cows" along the lower Euphrates, but by the latter half 

 of the eighteenth century they had disappeared from this region. 



At the present day the Arabian Oryx is divided into two separate de- 

 tachments, the northern and the southern. These two groups are quite isolated, 

 they live at least seven hundred miles apart, keeping to their two eandy 

 refuges the Northern Nafud and the Southern Wilderness of Rub al Khali. 

 The two groups used to link up along the Dahana sand belts, but it is 

 unlikely that they wander there any longer. The exact range of the northern 

 group is fairly well known, but there is a good deal of conjecture about that 

 of the south .... 



In the north, the nucleus of the Oryx left at the present day centres 

 around the Western Nafud between Jauf and Taima, but they do not, of 

 course, approach to within some distance of either of these oases. The hills 

 bordering the Hijaz railway on the east mark the western limits of the Oryx. 

 They do not range much to the north of the Jabal Tubaiq, nor south of 

 Taima. They are not found in Jabal Shammar, nor have they been recorded 

 from the southern edge of the Nafud between Taima and Hail. Of their 

 occurrence in the eastern half of the Nafud there has been only one, and 

 that not a too reliable, record. 



It is doubtful whether the Oryx exists any longer in the Dahana sand-belts, 

 or indeed in any of the other sand-beds in middle Arabia. The great southern 

 wilderness of sand from Najran to Oman is his main, and probably his last, 

 stronghold. We have actual records of him from the southern margin of the 

 sand, both from the north of the Hadhramaut and from the hinterland of 

 Dhufar; and we know he ranges, under certain conditions, over the whole 

 of the main sand area of the Rub al Khali west of longitude 52 degrees. 



