1892.] ON MAMMALS, REPTILES, ETC. FROM BARBARY. 3 



1. On a small Collection of Mammals^ Reptiles^ and 

 Batrachians from Barbary. By John Anderson^ M.D., 

 LL.D., F.R.S. 



[Received November 31, 1891.] 

 (Plate I.) 



The Mammals, Reptiles, and Batrachians enumerated in the 

 following notes were obtained either by myself in Algeria and 

 Tunisia, or by my collector at Duirat, in the latter region, on the 

 confines of Tripoli. But besides these, several species of Eeptiles 

 from the Sahara, purchased from a collector at Biskra^, are also 

 included in the list. The specimens collected by me were acquired 

 between December and the beginning of May, and those captured 

 by my collector between the middle of May and the end of June.^ 



The weather experienced in Algeria, in the winter and spring of 

 1889-90, was very unfavourable to collecting natural history speci- 

 mens, and more especially reptiles. In Algiers itself, from the end 

 of November until the 7th February, there was a succession of 

 rainless intervals followed by protracted periods of wet weather 

 accompanied with high winds, and so cold that fires were indis- 

 pensable while the wet weather lasted. During these storms what 

 fell as rain in the lower altitudes of the Tell, came down as snow 

 on the Atlas and the high plateaux, a cold wind blowing from off 

 their heights. On the 10th February I encountered snow a metre 

 in depth on Mount Beni Salah (5379 ft.) above Blidah, at an 

 elevation of about 1200 to 1500 ft. below the summit ; and M. Lataste 

 records that, on the 22nd April 1881, the rain and hail that fell at 

 that elevation ou this mountain prevented him from passing beyond 

 the farm called La Glaciere, where snow is stored for use in summer 

 at Algiers. This bad weather was not confined to the neighbourhood 

 of Algiers, because, while there, there were constant reports coming 

 in of heavy snow in Kabylia, at Setif, Constantine, and Batna, and 

 indeed over the high plateaux generally, these storms occasionally 

 making themselves felt as far south as Biskra, whence it was reported 



^ The localities in which the specimens had been captured were in every 

 instance carefully noted on the bottles. 



^ The following is a list of the localities visited by me, with the altitudes of 

 some of them, and the date when I was at each : — Algiers, Nov.-7 Feb. ; Blidah, 

 on the southern slope of the plain of the Metidji, 7th-12th Feb. ; Hammam 

 E'irha, 1800 ft., 12th-27th Feb. ; Orau, 27th Feb.-6th March ; Tlemgen, 

 2500 ft,, 6th-llth March; Oran, llth-13th March; Milianah, 2400 ft., 13th- 

 19th March; Algiers, 19th-31st March; Tizi Ouzou, 31st March; Fort 

 National, Kabylia, 3153 ft., 1st April; Tizi Ouzou, l3t-2nd April; Bordj 

 Bouira, 2nd April; Bougie, 3rd-5th April ; Kharata, Ohabet el Akhira, 1280ft., 

 5tli-8th April ; Setif, 3573 ft., 8th-10th April ; Constantine, 2093 ft., 10th- 

 15th April ; Biskra, 360 ft., 15th-22nd April ; Constantine, 22nd-23rd April ; 

 Hammam Meskoutine, 23rd-28th April ; Souk el Arba, plain of the Medjeida, 

 Tunisia, 29th April; Tunis, SOth April-i2th May. 



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