60 
THE SAHARA AND ITS FAUNA. 
(Illustrated by tiie Lantern). 
By GRAHAM RENSHAW, MD., F.R.S.E. Feb. 15, 1916. 
Mr. Renshaw opened his lecture by pointing out the exis- 
tence of close regional limitations which obtain in the animal 
world. Though the northern and southern deserts of Africa 
are very similar in climate and vegetation, the fauna of the 
Sahara is, apart from one or two instances, quite distinct 
from that of the southern deserts. The lecturer took as the 
basis of his remarks some half-dozen sketches of the 
grouping of desert animals, made jby Sir William ^Harris, 
one of the early African explorers, from the scat of his waggon. 
The sketches were reproduced as lantern slides and skilfully 
used for interesting deductive studies of the ways and habits 
of desert fauna. 
In one picture, obviously a morning scene, the close bunch- 
ing of the animals (antelopes, wild asses, &c.) shews signs 
of breaking up — the antelopes “ stringing out ” while the 
wild asses assume crescent formation. Among the ostriches 
in the foreground are to be seen the gazelle and wild ass ; 
this grouping is accounted for by the fact that the extremely 
acute hearing of the gazelle helps out the deficiencies, [in this 
respect, of the ostrich. By the aid of another picture the 
lecturer skilfully deduced the story of a wilderness tragedy. 
The sketch shewed an oasis in the desert with a lion in the 
foreground and the fragmentary skeleton of an antelope or 
gazelle in the middle distance. The obvious deduction was 
that the lion was just leaving the carcase of a desert animal 
it had overpowered and eaten. This was not so, for the 
lion had certainly not recently fed upon the carcase. The 
lion invariably gnaws the hind quarters of its prey, then 
the body and lastly the head. After the body has thus been 
mauled there is next a gradual gathering of vultures which 
circle round and round and ever closer and closer to the 
torn carcase until they are sure life is extinct. They alight 
upon the body and take their toll. Lastly the liyamas are 
attracted by the presence of vultures who thus serve as a 
means of indicating the presence of food. Thus the tragedy 
is completed and the mere bones are left to bleach in the 
desert. 
