FAUNA AND FLORA OF SINAI, PETRA, AND WADY 'ARABAH. 41 



Hey's sand-partridge, shrikes, and desert larks are also not unfrequent, 

 the latter lower down towards the 'Arabah. 



To Laurence's sharp sight I was indebted for two snakes, Zamenis 

 Cliff ordii, Schleg., and Rhyncocalamus melanocephalus, Gunt. The latter 

 species was believed peculiar to the Jordan Valley, where it was found by 

 Tristram, and forms as yet the single representative of the genus founded 

 for it by Dr. Gunther. The former has not hitherto been found outside 

 the African continent. 



A centipede (Scolopendra) and a black millipede (Spirostreptus) four 

 or five inches long, but fortunately torpid, were captured here. The 

 latter seemed to be very common. 



Wells, which I often searched with a net, yielded, as a rule, no life except 

 small leeches and the larvae of gnats. Some handsome insects of the 

 grasshopper and cricket sorts were captured from time to time. 



Up to this very few mollusca have been collected; Helix seetzeni, Koch., 

 and H. candidissima, Drap , were found in one or two places in Sinai. The 

 latter was again met with in Widy Ghurundel in Edom, where I found 

 also H . prophetarum, Bourg.; H, filia, Mouss., and the handsome species 

 H. spiriplana, Oliv. On Mount Hor this last was frequent, and another 

 fine shell, Bulitmis carneus, Pfr., was here first found. Most of these 

 became commoner down to the Ghor. At Petra, and in the 'Arabah, I 

 collected also Helix ccespitum, Drap., a rare species. This scarcity of land 

 shells is paralleled on the eastern side of the Gulf of 'Akabah in the land 

 of Midian, where Captain Burton speaks of them as very rare, and 

 mentions that he only met with two species in four months. In its 

 natural history this little known country appears to be (judging from 

 Captain Burton's work) almost identical with Sinai. 



