?94' APPENDIX. 



rifhed by the accidents of the journey, though fome of very 

 great beauty have efcaped, and are in my collection in great 

 prefervation. 



As I went eailward towards the defert, the number of this 

 animal decreafed, I fuppofe, from a fcarcity of water ; for 

 example, at Palmyra, tho' there were ruins of ancient build- 

 ings, and a great folitude, as at Baalbec, the lizards were 

 few, all of the colour of the ground, without beauty or va- 

 riety, and feemingly degenerated in point of fize. 



The Arabian naturalifls and phyficians were better ac- 

 quainted with the different fpecies of this animal than any 

 philofphers have been fince, and in all probability than any 

 ftrangers will ever be ; they lived among them, and had an 

 opportunity of difcovering their manners and every detail 

 of their private ceconomy. Happy if fucceeding the Greeks 

 in thefe ftudies, they had not too frequently left obfervation 

 to deviate into fable ; the field, too, which thefe various 

 fpecies inhabit is a very extenfive one, and comprehends all 

 Alia and Africa, that is, great portion of the old world, every 

 part of which is, from various caufes, more inaccefiible at 

 this day, than after the Arabian conqueft. It is from the 

 Arabian books then that we are to ftudy with attention the 

 descriptions given of the animals of the country. But very 

 great difficulties occur in the courfe of thefe difquifitions. 

 The books that contain them areftill extant, and all the ani- 

 mals likewife exifi as before ; but, unfortunately, the He- 

 brew, the Syriac, and the Arabic, are languages very ambi- 

 guous and equivocal, and are in terms too loofe and vague 

 for modern accuracy and precife defcription, and efpecially 

 £o in that of colours ; befides, that unbounded liberty of tranf- 



pofition 



