172 
BAY OF AMPHILA. 
rabbity which delights in frequenting dry and desert situations, 
seemed to he common on the coast. Among the birds worthy of 
observation, a large and fine species of bustard, and several spe- 
cies of lapwing were most conspicuous, all of which, upon an 
examination of the contents of their stomachs, appeared to feed 
chiefly on locusts, with which the neighbourhood was at this 
time much infested. 
During our stay in this quarter a large flight of these insects 
came over to one of the islands, and in a few days destroyed 
nearly half the vegetation upon it, not sparing even the bitter 
leaves of the rack -tree. These locusts are called Jerad in Yemen, 
and Anne in Dankali, and are commonly used as food by the 
wandering tribes of both these nations, who, after broiling them, 
separate the heads from the bodies, and devour the latter in the 
same manner as Europeans eat shrimps and prawns. 
The main land, towards the sea, is every where skirted with a 
thick jungle, (if I may so express it) of the rack-tree, much fre- 
quented by a species of fox, called by the natives ' wobit/ which 
comes down regularly to the sea-side, on the fall of the tide, to 
seek for shell-fish and other marine substances, on which it prin- 
cipally feeds. This circumstance was early noticed by Pliny, who 
calls the fox, a small dog, and the rack, an olive-tree."* " In 
mari vero rubro sylvas vivere, laurum maxime et olivam ferentem 
baccas — caniculis refertas vix utprospicere h navi tutum sit, 
remW plerunque ipsos invadentibus.'' It is worthy of observa- 
* This is probably the " cjUj" " benat el wau," respecting whicli the 38th 
question is proposed by Micheelis. Vide Recueil de Questions, &c. p. 81. I have seen the 
footsteps also of the hyeena close to the sea-side. 
