1872.] F. Stoliczka — Mammals and Birch inhabiting Kaohh. 217 



mals and birds which I shall enumerate in the following pages. Of course 

 judging from both the uniformity, as well as the scarcity, of favourable natural 

 conditions, one could a priori only expect a very poor fauna and flora. The 

 vegetation of the country in general, setting aside that of the cultivated 

 tracts, may indeed be regarded as a picture of sterility. Very few flowering 

 plants are to be seen in the dry season. Among the herbaceous plants* 

 those growing on sandy or saline ground naturally prevail over others, and 

 their leaves are often leathery and thick, or sometimes reduced to spines and 

 thorns. Among saline plants the most common are Statice Stocksii, Solanum 

 trilobatum, and a Pluchea. Of other more common species of herbaceous 

 plants I may notice : Trichodesma indicum, PLeliotropium supinum and 

 strigosum, Solanum nigrum, Crotalaria Purhia, Orygia decumbens, Phalan- 

 gium graminifolium, Vahlia viscosa, Salvia (egyptiaca, Convolvulus pluricaulis, 

 Cressa Gretica, Polygala Vahliana, Gl'mus mollugo, Polygonum plebejum, 

 Euphorbia thymifolia and JE. dracunculoides, Mvolvulus alsinoides, Aristida 

 depressa, JErva Jcwanica, Vernonia cinerea, Trianthemum crystallinum and 

 T. decandrum, and others. Mr. Kurz determined about one hundred 

 species out of a small collection I made ; a few appear to be new. The low 

 jungles barely deserve this name, for they are almost entirely composed of 

 thorny bushes (Capparis aphylla) with little or scarcely any foliage. Among 

 others I may mention Tamarix orientalis, Celastrus senegalensis, two species 

 of Grewia, and Cratceva Poxburghii, the last growing into a tree, also Kunda 

 (Prosopis spicigera^) is locally numerous, but scarcely more generally 

 distributed than the Cactus like Euphorbia neriifolia, which often for miles 

 suppresses all other semiarboreal vegetation. The only fine trees to be occa- 

 sionally seen are Picus religiosa and P. Pengalensis, in the neighbour- 

 hood of villages or near wells, where they are planted as a shelter against 

 the heat of the day. 



Extensive forests are, as already observed, unknown, and, naturally, 

 we would look in vain for any of the large Carnivora, (except as 

 mere stragglers), and the existence of large Pachyderms or Ruminants is 

 made entirely impossible. Equally so we almost entirely miss the true 

 forest denizens of the feathered tribe, such as the Pucerotidcs, Picidce, Cer~ 

 thiidcB, Sittidce,Phasianidce ; a few of the Eastern type of birds like the Pury- 

 laimidce or Treronidce are also entirely absent, their geographical distribu- 

 tionf being rather limited, But other families, which might be expected to 



* I am indebted to Mr. S, Kurz for the names of the plants. 



f Too much importance is. I think, occasionally attributed to the so-called laws 

 of geographical distribution, independently of other agencies, as if these laws were 

 innate to the animal. When speaking of the geographical distribution of a species, 

 one is apt to forget, that these geographical limits are 'mainly dependent upon the 

 physical conditions, required for, and suitable to, the existence of a certain species. 



