126 ANIMAL LIFE IN DESERTS 



which store food in bulbs, tubers, and other struc- 

 tures underground, and are only above ground for 

 a short season, are probably of considerable impor- 

 tance to the fauna, but we have Httle actual know- 

 ledge on this point. Tristram, in speaking of the 

 deserts of Southern Palestine, says : " The vast 

 number of little rodents in apparent deserts is 

 explained by the nature of their food, which is 

 chiefly supplied by bulbous roots. The greater 

 part of the desert plants are tuberous or bulbous, 

 and after nine months of utter barrenness, the first 

 winter rains soon carpet the waste with a brilliant 

 spangling of bulbous flowers — crocus, iris, squiUs, 

 asphodels, cyclamen, and others. Their glory is 

 soon over ; but the large succulent roots remain, 

 retaining their moisture through the summer, and 

 affording abundant nutriment to the Httle bur- 

 rowers." Hart states that the wild boar wanders 

 far out into the semi-deserts of Beersheba in order 

 to root for bulbs, particularly those of the great 

 squill (Urginea, Fig. 26), and that in consequence 

 roots of this plant become quite difficult to obtain. 

 In the burrow of a Mole-rat (Spalax), in Egypt, 

 Anderson found a store of sixty-eight bulbs, but he 

 does not state the species of plant to which they 

 belonged. 



It is natural that animals should be particularly 

 associated with plants of the third group, which 

 are above ground at aU seasons of the year, and 

 which supply food and water even at unfavourable 

 seasons to the creatures which can make use of them. 

 Many examples might be found of mammals and 



