1868.] 



Fauna and Flora of Palestine. 



317 



Several of the Ethiopian Mammalia are sedentary forms, and seem to 

 point to an earlier settlement than across the recent deserts. There is no 

 trace of any immigration from the Indian region. Of the peculiar species, 

 Hyrax syriacus belongs to an exclusively Ethiopian and isolated type, yet is 

 specifically different from its congeners, which are all most sedentary in 

 their habits. 



The Avifauna is very rich in number of species, most unequally distri- 

 buted. The Ethiopian and Indian types are almost exclusively confined to 

 the Dead-Sea basin, excepting only the desert forms. There are several 

 Indian species, as Ketupa ceylonensis, which have no affinities with any 

 Ethiopian forms. Of the peculiar species, besides several modifications of 

 v^'-ell-known Palsearctic forms, there are eleven, belonging to as many dif- 

 ferent Ethiopian and Indian genera. Three of these are decidedly Indian 

 in their affinities. The Avifauna of the Dead- Sea basin is decidedly 

 distinct and typical, sometimes Indian, more generally Ethiopian in its 

 character. 



In the Reptilia there is a less prominent intrusion of Ethiopian types, 

 there being a general similarity to the Egyptian herpetological fauna, which 

 must be classed within the Palsearctic region. The Indian is present in 

 Bahoia xanthina ; and the affinities of a new genus Rhynchocalamus are 

 rather obscure. Snakes in particular are more limited to the original 

 locality of the individuals, and the groups, like the individuals, are more 

 stationary. 



The fluviatile ichthyological fauna is much more distinct, though the 

 number of species is small. In its consideration we confine ourselves to 

 the Jordan and its tributaries, in which are three Nilotic fishes, three 

 others extending eastward in Asia, six to other rivers of Syria, and four 

 peculiar, bearing a strong affinity to the species and genera (as Chromis 

 and Hemichromis) of tropical Eastern Africa. 



Of the Mollusca, most of the peculiar species have no geographical sig- 

 nification. The Pulmonifera have developed in groups, which are modifi- 

 cations of desert types in the south, and of Mediterranean forms on the 

 coast. Variation in this class appears rapidly to follow segregation, as 

 shown by the Jordanic species. The fluviatile mollusca are much more 

 distinct, and indicate a very ancient separation from any adjacent district. 



Similar inferences may be drawn from the examination of the Arachnida, 

 Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, and Orthoptera, as well as from the Rhizopod 

 fauna, which is similar to that of the Indian Ocean. (The examination of 

 the Coleoptera is not yet completed.) 



The flora of Palestine is, on the coastline and highlands, simply a repro- 

 duction of that of the Eastern Mediterranean. That of the Jordan valley 

 is most distinct. Of 113 species by the Dead Sea, only 27 are European, 

 and these chiefly weeds of world-wide distribution. In this area the flora 

 is almost exclusively Ethiopian, consisting largely of species extending 

 from the Canaries to India. 



