418 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



Fishes. — The Arabian seas swarm with a-ll sorts of fishes. 

 In the short passage between Suez and Jidda, Forskal ob- 

 served more than a hundred new species, only a part of which 

 he could rank among the known genera. Of these were 

 some with which he was familiar ; such as crabs, oysters, 

 cod, mackerel, mullet, scarus, perch, and ray, but of species 

 unknown in our seas. Others, such as the Chcetodon and the 

 Scia:na, are peculiar to the waters of hot climates. Troops 

 of flying-fishes w^ere seen, which rose from time to time 

 above the surface. Of those observed by Captain Head near 

 Loheia, some were spotted with glowing green and blue, 

 others tinted W'ith bright red. The Arabs on the coast, as 

 well as their cattle, subsist almost entirely on this kind of 

 food ; but the fishermen always kill their prey before bring- 

 ing them ashore, for fear of violating some precept of the 

 Mohammedan law.* 



Insects. — The locust, both from its numbers and its de- 

 structiveness, is the most formidable of all the Arabian in- 

 sects. There appears to be various species. Forskal calls 

 that which infests Arabia GrylLus gregarius, from their liv- 

 incr and travelling in coninanies : and thinks it different from 

 the Gryllus migralorius of Linnaeus, which passes from its 

 native deserts of Tartary into Poland and Germany. Nie- 

 buhr found nests of these insects near Mosul, which 

 he thought, with proper care, might easily have been de- 

 stroyed. They are said to breed three times in the year. 

 When young, they are about the size of a fly, but grow 

 with great rapidity, and attain their natural size in a few 

 days. The prodigious quantities in which they take their 

 flight is almost incredible. Their swarms darken the air, 

 and appear at a distance like clouds of smoke. The noise 



death by inflammation." Burckhardt observes, that the Arabic 

 ■* ersion of the Pentateuch is more correct than our translation, 

 by rendering it "serpents of burning bites, instead of "fiery 

 serpents." 



* All Bey has noticed a battle of fishes in the Red Sea, be- 

 tween Jidda and Yembo. The scene of action, — a circular 

 space of twenty feet diameter, — was indicated by the bubbling 

 and noise of the water, which e.xtended to a considerable dis- 

 tance. During the finny combat, swarms of seafowl hovered 

 over the spot, with a viev,- no doubt to feast on the slain, — Trav- 

 tls, vol. ii. p. 148. 



