NAIURE 



SjMay 



[88i 



come down upon Kadhab village on the north side. We 

 regained Hadibu on the 27th inst.'' 



From Hadibu the party were conveyed baci< to Aden 

 in H.M.S. Daginar, and arrived at the latter port on 

 April 9. 



The two months thus spent in Socotra were certainly 

 not sufficient for the proper investigation of its fauna and 

 flora, though considering the time occupied very satis- 

 factory results, as will be seen further on, were obtained. 

 As observed by Prof Balfour in his report, what has been 

 done by the expedition is but a fragment of what remains to 

 be accomplished. In exploring the island he deemed it 

 better, considering the short time of the sojourn, rather 

 to attempt to cover as much ground as possible, with the 

 view of obtaining a representative collection, than to 

 examine in detail a limited tract of country. By doing 

 thismuch barren land was travelled over,and manyrich and 

 fertile spots were necessarily only superficially looked at. 

 Especially amongst the hills of the Haggler range there are 

 valleys which would well repay a careful and extended 

 investigation. The expedition must, therefore, be con- 

 sidered only preliminary, for Prof. Balfour feels assured 

 that a rich harvest awaits any collector who may hereafter j 

 visit the island. 



" If, at any future time," Prof. Balfour observes, " an ex- 

 pedition is sent to the island, it would be well if the date of 

 its arrival were timed so that it should have the last months 

 of a year and the first months of the following upon the 

 island. Our expedition reached the island too late in the 

 year, so that before we left the heat was so intense as to 

 prevent our doing so much work as we desired. Again, 

 the inaccuracy of our knowledge of the geography of the 

 island is a point to which the attention of future expedi- 

 tions should be directed. The chart based on WeUsted's 



observations is the only available one, and that is so in- 

 complete and incorrect as to be almost useless to any one 

 moving about the island." 



Collections in all branches of natural history were made 

 by Prof. Balfour's e.xpedition. Prof. Balfour, as might 

 have been anticipated, devoting himself specially to the 

 botany of the island. As arranged by the Socotran 

 Committee, the first set of the zoological specimens have 

 been sent to the British IVluseum, and that of the plants 

 will go to Kew when Prof. Balfour's memoir on them 

 has been published. The rocks and geological specimens 

 have been placed in the hands of Prof. Bonney of 

 Cambridge. 



The collections are as yet but imperfectly worked out, 

 but sufficient has been done to give results of very great 

 interest in every branch of natural history. 



The Birds, reported upon by Mr. Sclater and Dr. 

 Hartlaub," are found to belong to thirty-six species — gene- 

 rally "North-East African in character, being mostly 

 such as are included in Heuglin's ' Ornithologie Nord-ost- 

 Afrikas.' " Six however are peculiar to the island, the 

 most remarkable of them being a new form of sparrow 

 with a very thick bill, which is named by Messrs. Sclater 

 and Hartlaub Rliynchostnithics Socotraiiiis (Fig. i). It is 

 however possible that the RhynchoslriUlius and other 

 new species may still turn up on the peninsula of Gardafui, 

 of which the zoology is almost unknown to us. 



Mr. Butler's report on the Butterflies and Moths cap- 

 tured by Prof. Bayley Balfour and his assistants in 

 Socotra ■■' tells us that of the thirteen species of which 

 examples were brought, not less than seven were new to 

 science. " Of the new forms five are allied to previously- 

 recorded types from the following localities : — one from 

 the Comoro Islands, one from South-West Africa, one 



aJ^^yfeSiit,, 



Fig. \.—Rhynclu-'striithus Socotranus. 



from Zanzibar, and two from Arabia. Without the help 

 of these last two it would therefore have been impossible 

 for any one not .icquainted with it to guess at the locality 

 from which this collection had been obtained." 



The land-shells obtained in Socotra have been assigned 

 to Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., for exa- 

 mination, and his report on the Cyclostomacese was read 

 before the Zoological Society on February i last.' Col. 

 Godwin-Austen states that the Socotran Cyclostomacea;, 

 as a whole, "are, as might have been expected, African 

 and Arabian in character, the relationship being certainly, 

 as regards the operculated forms, more Arabian than 

 African. The collection contains a number of very dis- 

 tinct, tine, and interesting forms, of which some were 

 already known, but many are new, and considerably 

 e.xtend the list of Socotran species. The large area of 



' ■' On the Land.Shells of the Island of Sccotra collected bv Prof. T. B. 

 Balfour," Part i (Proc. Zool. Soc , iSSi, p. 251). 



Fig. i. — Tri>pidiJ>kci 



: BalM 



limestone formation on the island is especially favourable 

 to the existence of these creatures, while island conditions 

 have as usual modified and increased the species." 



" Judging from the land-molluscan fauna of Socotra," 

 continues Col. Godwin-.Austen, " there is strong evidence 

 that the island was once directly connected with Mada- 

 gascar to the south. We know the great antiquity of that 

 island, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that in 

 Socotra, the Seychelles, Madagascar, and Rodriguez, we 

 have the remnants of a very ancient, more advanced 

 coast-line on this western side of the Indian Ocean, which 

 line of elevation was probably continuous through Arabia 

 towards the north. With an equally advanced coast on 

 the Indian side, the Arabian Sea would, under these con- 



' "On the Birds collected 

 Zool. Soc. iSSi, p. 165). 



2 "On the Lepidoptera collected 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc, 18S1, p. 175). 



Socotra by Prof. J. B. Balfour " (Pr, 

 Socotra by Prof. J. C. Balfou 



