6o SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 



In animal life, gazelles, mole-rats, Spalax typhlus, Pall., and sand-rats, 

 Psammomys obesus, Rtipp., appeared to be the most abundant. I 

 captured examples of the latter two, which are now in the British 

 Museum. 



The mole-rat, the Asiatic representative of the English mole, though 

 of a very different family, is a strangely ugly little animal with long 

 protuberant teeth. Mr. Armstrong showed me a ready way of obtaining 

 specimens, which at first sight appeared to be hopeless. His plan was to 

 watch the freshly up-lifted heaps of soil which are raised in line at short 

 intervals, and notice the direction the animal is burrowing in by the 

 relative freshness of the heaps. Soon a slight movement will be observed 

 in the freshest heap or beyond it, and on firing a charge into the ground 

 at once, the gun about a foot from a point a few inches ahead of the 

 moving place, the animal will be stunned, and may be at once~dug out, 

 probably alive. I tried this plan twice successfully. 



A buff-coloured snake, about 3 feet long, Zamenis atrovirens, Gray., 

 was killed in the neighbourhood of Tell Abu Hareireh. Geckos and 

 toads were also captured, A brown and gray fox (Vulpes nilotica, ?) was 

 seen near Blr es Seb4. Laurence shot a fine wild cat {Felis maniculata, 

 Rupp.) in a gulley near Tell Abu Hareireh. It measured 2 feet 8 inches 

 from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, the tail itself being i foot. 

 It was of a grayish-brown colour, brindled with sandy brown across the 

 back and down the sides. The tip of the tail was ringed with black. 

 This is supposed to be the cat found embalmed in Egyptian monuments. 

 It is found along the Nile, and as far south as Abyssinia. 



I spent as much time as I could in digging up bulbs. Of these there 

 were several identifiable species, as Xiphion palcestinum, Baker., a dwarf 

 sweet iris, with large flowers in tints of buff and French gray. Colchicum 

 montanum, Linn., occurred in the greatest abundance, white or pale 

 mauve, and was very beautiful. Urginea Scilla, Sternih., and Asphodelus 

 ramosus, Linn., were most abundant, increasing westwards to Gaza. 

 Bellevallia Jlexuosa, Boiss., and Ornithogalum umbellatum, Linn., also 

 frequently appeared. 



About Bir es Sebi the birds observed were cranes, black and white 

 storks, buzzards and kites, trumpeter bullfinches, pintail grouse, Greek 

 partridge, black-headed gulls and lapwings, as well as several desert 



