FAUNA AND FLORA OF SINAI, PETRA, AND WADY 'ARABAH. '73 



were seen here, though not at the Gh6r es Safieh. Blackbirds, wagtails, 

 and stonechats were commoner, and an unexpected northern visitant, a 

 redwing, Turdus iliacus, Linn., was shot at 'Ain es Sultdn. This bird has 

 not previously been obtained in Palestine, but it is likely that the wave 

 of unusually severe weather, about to be felt by us at Jerusalem, drove 

 many of its companions into the country. 



The river Jordan-" was considerably swollen, and so muddy that a 

 plunge in its waters did not look inviting. However, Laurence and I 

 swam it and set foot on the other side of Jordan. It was about thirty 

 yards across, with a strong current, about enough to give equal drift and 

 headway to a swimmer. The water was too turbid for me to learn much 

 about its inhabitants. However I picked up two molluscs, a bivalve and 

 a univalve [Corbicula Saulcyi, Bourg., and Melanopsis costata, Oliv) on 

 the muddy edge of the stream. 



We returned to Jerusalem by Marsaba, where we camped on the 

 night of the i6th — unhappily our last experience of 'tenting,' the most 

 enjoyable kind of Eastern life. Our intended expedition by Tiberias and 

 Merom through northern Palestine ending in Beirtit was put a stop to 

 by heavy snow. Before dismissing Jericho I have to mention the species 

 gathered which were not previously met with : Ranunculus asiaticus, Linn.; 

 Matthiola oxyceras, D.C.; Saponaria vaccaria, Linn.; Silene palcBstina, 

 Boiss.; Arenaria pida., Sibth.; Rhus oxyacanthoides, Dum.; Ammi majus, 

 Linn.; Aizoon kispanicum, Linn.; Ononis antiquorum, Linn.; Evax con- 

 tracta, Boiss.; Amberboa Lippii, B.C.; Hedypnois cretica, Boiss.; 

 Hagioseris, sp. (?) {H. galilcea, Boiss. (?); Picris, sp. ; Orobanche 

 (sgyptiaca, Pers.; Linaria albifrons, Sibth. ; L. micrantha, Cav.; Cuscuta, 

 sp. (?) (C palcBstina, Boiss. ?); Convolvulus siculus, Linn.; Vitex agnus- 

 castus, Linn.; Phalaris minor, Rets.; Schismus marginatus, P. de B.; 

 Bromus madritensis, Linn.; Kceleria phleoides, Pers. Of these the 

 Orobanche was a lovely bright blue species, and the Rhus a pretty red- 

 berried thorn very like the hawthorn, but with flattened berries and minute 

 flowers. This thorn has been found as far south as latitude 26° in Midian, 

 at about 4,000 feet above sea-level, by Captain Burton. The Ononis was 

 an erect shrub, about 5 or 6 feet high, with a few slender long spiny 

 branches and some scattered flowers like those of our own restharrow. 

 The Ranunculus is so like Anemone coronaria (which occurred) that it 



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