1877.] REV. CANON TRISTRAM ON ELIOMYS MELANURUs. 41 
Explorers are well content if they can by great good fortune trap or 
shoot a chance specimen ; but it is impossible for them to note, still 
less to study, the habits of these most interesting creatures. The 
inexorable fate of the eastern traveller is similar to that of the victim 
of the police. He must be always moving on. Yet with all these 
difficulties to contend against, I have obtained in those regions no 
less than 26 species of the smaller Glires, of the families Spalacini, 
Murini, Merionides, Dipodide, Arvicolini, Myoxini, omitting alto- 
gether Squirrels, Hares, &c. I am satisfied that this list could be 
very largely increased with time and Opportunity ; for Ihave myself 
observed many species which I could not succeed in capturing, 
especially Dormice and Hamsters. One might be easily accused of 
exaggeration in describing the countless numbers of holes and burrows 
in regions which for a great part of the year present the appearance 
of utter desert. Sometimes for miles a district has the appearance 
are occupied by the various species of Chat (Sawicoline); but I have 
good evidence for believing that these birds only utilize existing 
burrows, from the fact that in digging out their nests, I have found 
traces of the original builders in the shape of their excreta, and also 
runs which had manifestly not been used by the birds. 
Of the many species we have procured, I have had favourable 
opportunities of noting the habits of only one or two. 
One of these, Acomys dimidiatus, a beautiful little isabel-coloured 
Mouse, with the coat of a Hedgehog, I watched for an hour or two 
among bare gravel near the Dead Sea. Its colour so perfectly har- 
monized with the pebbles that I could not have detected it had I 
not caught its eye as it was nibbling a root, puffed out like a little 
ball. As it ate, its quills lay smoothly back; but when it began, as 
it soon did, to scrape into the sand, its bristles were erect. Its food 
on this occasion was the bulb of a small crocus. 
This explains the vast number of these various Rodents in this 
apparent desert. The larger proportion of ‘the plants are bulbous 
or tuberous; and after a nine months’ utter barrenness, the first 
Winter rains soon carpet the waste with a brilliant spangling of 
bulbous flowers—crocus, iris, squills, asphodels, cyclamens, and 
others. Their glory is soon over; but the large succulent roots 
remain, retaining their moisture through the summer, and thus 
affording abundant nutriment to the little burrowers. 
I much regret that we were singularly unfortunate in our attempts 
to shoot or trap one Rodent, which puzzled us much. It abounded 
on the uplands of Moab ; and I have not noticed it_elsewhere. It 
seemed not much smaller than a rabbit, and lived in colonies, 
never coming out till sunset. Soon afterwards one might hear 
tapidly reanswering cries, like a faint squeaking bark, and the 
little creatures were perched each at the mouth of a burrow, down 
which they disappeared instantaneously on the least alarm. It was 
in vain to attempt to dig for them, as the burrows were among the 
