100 MR. DLBTIELD THOMA.8 OV [Feb. 6, 



10. Fells mea.nicitla.ta Cretzschm. 



a. 2 • Lahej, 27th August. " Shot on desert iu bush.*' Xative 

 name " Erri." 



It is impossible to sav with any certainty what specific name 

 should be used for this little Wild Cat until the whole group has 

 been properly revised. Additional material from all localities is 

 much needed. 



" Wild Cat. — Only this one specimen was obtained, though I tried 

 hard to get another with the traps. We were riding out towards 

 Shaka, a village above Lahej, when the shikari pointed out this cat 

 slinking off towards Wadi Bilih : away we went as hard as the 

 camels could go and managed to cut the beast off from the wadi — 

 a bit of a run over the desert, and she took refuge in a bush. I 

 jumped down, took off my coat, went in and managed to pull her 

 down as she bolted. On examination we found it was a female, 

 and had, I think, young ones still sucking. When in the open desert 

 the colour was most perfect, blending with the sand. I afterwards 

 saw spoor in the wadi which I put down to this animal or one 

 very near it. It was just after dawn when we killed this cat, so I 

 suppose she was just returning from a night's hunting." 



11. Fells caracal Griild. 



a. Habil, W. of Lahej, 20th September. 



" Lynx. — The Lynx was caught in a trap set for Hyaena on night 

 of September 26th at Wadi El Kabir. He was a pleasant looking 

 creature in the morning when we visited the trap ; as I wished to 

 get down into Sheikh Othman quickly, I thought I would take him 

 down alive. We made a couple of nooses and threw over the 

 beast's head, drew them tight, and an Arab shoved a sack over him, 

 loosed off the traps and then tied up the legs of our prisoner ; we all 

 lost skin and blood in the process. Into my Horig ' he went, and 

 off I set for the bungalow. On arrival I found the poor beast dead, 

 one of the nooses not having come off — so I had to turn to there 

 and then, and make a skin of him. 



"I think the beast is not uncommon, for I saw spoor on manv 

 occasions near villages, and twice I was sent for to come and shoot 

 an animal that was doing great damage among the sheep — always 

 tearing the throat out. Now a wolf almost invariably attacks the 

 flank and kills that way, so it was no wolf, and the onlv other 

 animal I could put it down to was this cat. Xative information 

 is more unreliable in Arabia than anywhere I have been : they know 

 nothing of habits of animals, nor do they know tracks of different 

 beast when they see them." 



12. HYjENA HY-2EKA L. 



n. Habil, 25th September. 



"Hycena. — We wen 1 very unfortunate with Hyaenas, for they wem 

 not rare, their spoor to be seen almost any morning, but they kept 



1 Large saddle-bag on Camel. 



