360 EXTRACTS FROM 



moment in the bed of the watercourse looking for a Hey's 

 Partridge which I had winged, when a shot was fired from 

 the opposite bank and one of the sportsmen called out that an 

 Armadillo (!) had just been missed and that it was running 

 before the dogs. The Bedouins and I were following the chase 

 as fast as we could, when suddenly all was quiet, and we came 

 to a tree round the stem and roots of which an edifice of 

 branches had been built up several feet high. It was like a 

 beaver's dam ; indeed there is no other way of describing this 

 admirable piece of animal architecture, which had circular 

 entrances on two sides. 



When the Bedouins saw this erection they drew back rather 

 uneasily, and Salim posted me close to one of the openings, 

 while he ordered his men to light a fire at the other. As 

 soon as the flames burnt up brightly and the building began 

 to crackle a curious dragon-like creature, certainly more than 

 four feet long, crept cautiously out, and was moving off at a 

 most comical kind of trot when a well-directed shot put an 

 end to its life. My interesting spoil was a lizard, and though 

 I am not well up in reptiles, I fancied that we had one of 

 the great Waran Lizards lying before us. Now came the 

 question how to send the rare specimen back to camp unin- 

 jured; and as the Arabs positively refused to touch its clammy 

 body with their hands, we had to make a little litter of sticks 

 on which to lay the mighty dead, and so sent it home by a 

 Bedouin. We then went on with our sport, but soon found 

 that the partridges had become shy from being so much shot 

 at ; and as there seemed to be no luck for us to-day with the 

 wild boars, the whole party sought out a shady place under a 

 tree and lay down on the grass tired with the great and 

 oppressive heat. Even the Bedouins and their hardy dogs 

 were thirsty and panting, but there was only a little water in 

 the bed of the stream, and that not very clean. However, 

 the worthy Achmed produced, as usual, some bottles of 



