1872.] F. Stoliczka — Mammals and Birds inhabiting Kaclih. 217 
mals and birds which I shall enumerate in the following pages. Of course 
judging from both the uniformity, as well as the scarcity, of favourable natural 
conditions, one could a priori only expect a very poor fauna and flora. The 
vegetation of the country in general, setting aside that of the cultivated 
tracts, may indeed he regarded as a picture of sterility. Very few flowering 
plants are to be seen in the dry season. Among the herbaceous plants* 
those growing on sandy or saline ground naturally prevail over others, and 
their leaves are often leathery and thick, or sometimes reduced to spines and 
thorns. Among saline plants the most common are Statice Stoclcsii, Solanwm 
trilobatum, and a Pluchea. Of other more common species of herbaceous 
plants I may notice : Trichodesma indicmi, Heliotropium supinum and 
strigosum, Solarium nigrum, Crotalaria Burhia, Orygia decumbens, Phalan- 
gium graminifolium, Vahlia viscosa, Salvia wgyptiaca, Convolvulus pluricaulis, 
Cressa Creiica, Polygala Vahliana, Olinws mollugo, Polygonum plebejum. 
Euphorbia tliyihifolia and Eadraownculoides, Evolmlus alsinoides, Aristida 
depressa , Err, a Javanica, Vernonia cinerea, Trianthemum crystallinum and 
T. decandrum, and others. Mr. Kurz determined about one hundred 
species out of a small collection I made ; a few appear to be new. The low 
jungles barely deserve this name, for they are almost entirely composed of 
thorny bushes ( Oapparis aphylla) with little or scarcely any foliage. Among 
others I may mention Tamarix orientals, Celastrus senegalensis, two species 
of Oreivia, and Oratceva Boxburghii, the last growing into a tree, also Kunda 
( Prosopis spicigera,) is locally numerous, but scarcely more generally 
distributed than the Cactus like Euphorbia neriifolia, which often for miles 
suppresses all other semiarboreal vegetation. The only fine trees to be occa- 
sionally seen are Ficus religiosa and F. Bengalensis, in the neighbour- 
hood of villages or near wells, where they are planted as a shelter against 
the heat of the day. 
Extensive forests are, as already observed, unknown, and, naturally, 
we would look in vain for any of the large Carnivora, (except as 
mere stragglers), and the existence of large Pachyderms or Ruminants is 
made entirely impossible. Equally so we almost entirely miss the true 
forest denizens of the feathered tribe, such as the Bucerotida, Picidce, Cer- 
thiidcB, Sitt idce, Pliasianidce ; a few of the Eastern type of birds like the Eury- 
laimultE or Treronidie are also entirely absent, their geographical distribu- 
tionf being rather limited. But other families, which might he expected to 
* I am indebted to Mr. S. Knrz for the names of the plants. 
+ Too much importance is, I think, occasionally attributed to the so-called laws 
of geographical distribution, independently of other agencies, as if these laws were 
innate to the animal. When speaking of the geographical distribution of a species, 
one is apt to forget, that these geographical limits are mainly dependent upon the 
physical conditions, required for, and suitable to, the existence of a certain species. 
