8 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



Of these Saxicola isabellina, Rtipp. (Menetries' Wheatear) was several 

 times seen and shot. The ' Persian lark' {Certhilauda alaudipes, Desf.) 

 and the striolated bunting {Emberiza striolata, Licht.) were obtained, only 

 single specimens being as yet seen and secured of each. Ravens and 

 willow-wrens tenanted this widy. 



The first large quadruped's tracks were pointed out by the Arabs ; 

 they exclaimed ' dhaba ' — that is to say, ' hysena.' 



Another lizard, Agama ruderaia, Riv., and a skink, Sphoenops capis- 

 tratus, Wagl.. were captured here. The latter I found. on kicking to 

 pieces an ant hill, the home of a species of Camponotus, C. pubescens. 

 The lizard was afterwards very common throughout Sinai to the Dead 

 Sea. He was easy to catch, and his comical habit of standing at bay 

 with his tail cocked and his disproportionately large jaws wide open was 

 instructive ; no doubt it terrified troops of smaller foes. Like most true 

 natives of the desert he was sand-coloured, though the tail had some dull 

 blackish rings. Another lizard, Eremias guttata, v/as most difficult to 

 catch ; by pelting him with handfuls of sand, which confuses and stops 

 his movements for an instant, combined with a sudden rush, it may be 

 done. 



The rock here is a white cretaceous limestone. The bed of the wady 

 is cut deeply into marly deposits, leaving sheer mud-banks sometimes 

 8 feet high. The bed of this periodic stream was now perfectly dry. 

 From the appearance of these deposits, and those in other places, Professor 

 Hull considered there was evidence of a much greater rainfall in recent 

 times. 



On the tamarisk branches a curious buff-coloured chrysalis-like appen- 

 dage was frequently observed. It was about the consistency of tough 

 paper, half an inch long, but more brittle, and proved to be the egg case 

 of a species of Mantis. A large black beetle, Prionotheca coronata, Oliv., 

 was the only large insect found in WcLdy Ghurundel. 



Several plants were here first met with ; the most conspicuous was 

 a shrubby mignonette, Ochradenus baccatus, Del., thenceforward charac- 

 teristic of the lower desert wadies, and sometimes, where protected by 

 acacia trees from camels, 6 or 8 feet high. 



Here or nearer to Wady Useit, I noticed for the first time a second 

 species of acacia, A. tortilis, Hayne, less spiny and usually larger and 



