THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
an upper storey, we passed the night, meeting 
with a rude but hearty hospitality, our host resign- 
ing his own bedroom to his guests and providing 
them with mattresses and coverlids. 
The interest of the place lay in the fact that 
it had long been a brigand’s hold. Our host Kara 
All, or Black All, had been the chief of the band, 
but, with his comrade Baba, had recently made 
his peace with the Government, and both of them 
now served as guards on the Ottoman Railway. 
All the villagers were Zeybecs, and had belonged 
to the robber-band, and the chiefs still retained 
their sway throughout this district; their pass, 
I was told, being still respected far and wide 
throughout the range of the Messogis. The 
Zeybecs are probably the descendants of one of 
the aboriginal tribes of Anatolia, who have been 
driven to the mountains; where they practise 
their profession of robbers, aknowledging no law 
but their own will; and, like the Arabs, are gene- 
rally at war with all civilized mankind. They 
speak Turkish and profess to be Mussulmans, 
but hold their religion somewhat loosely, in which 
particular they differ from the Turkish peasantry, 
who are strict observers of their religious duties, 
and from 'whom they are at once distinguishable 
by their costume. I had heard that Franks were 
never allowed to enter a Zeybec village, except 
as hostages for their ransom; and we were in- 
formed that we were the first Europeans who 
had visited the village of Malagatch. 
But how, to use the phraseology of the Koran, 
shall I cause you to understand what a Zeybec 
is like? 
(to be continued ) 
Vanishing’ Forms, 
In an account of the vertebrates which have 
recently become extinct or are likely soon to be- 
come so, Mr. A. F. Lucas mentions the following: 
The West Indian Seal (Monachu s tropicalis), of 
which little is known. The California Sea-Ele- 
phant (Macrorhinus angustirqstris), last reported 
in 1884. The Walruses, the species of the Pacific 
(Odoboenvs <>be*us) being in greater danger from 
whalers than that of the Atlantic ( 0 . Rosmarus). 
197 
The European Bison ( Bison bona&us), at present 
diminishing in numbers although protected in the 
two localities where it exists. Most of the native 
birds of the Hawaian Islands, three species having 
already disappeared — one of them through the 
demand for war feathers for the native kings. 
The California Vulture (Pseudogryphus califor- 
niantus), now extremely rare. The Dodo ( Didus 
incptus ) of Mauritius and the Solitaire (Pezohaps 
solitairia) of Rodriguez, whose existing remains 
consist of a few bones. The Labrador Duck 
(Campt.olaemus l abradorius ), of which 36 speci- 
mens have been preserved, the last taken in 1878 . 
The Great Auk, ( Alca impennis), exterminated in 
1840 , though specimens are less rare than those of 
the Labrador duck, while commanding such prices 
as $ 600 for a single skeleton, $ 650 for a skin, 
and $ 1500 for an egg. Pallas’ Cormorant (Pha- 
lacrocorax perspicillSius), abundant on Behring 
Island in 1741 , but extinct a hundred years later, 
and now known only by 4 stuffed specimens and 
23 bones in the museums of the world. The great 
Galapagos and Mascarene tortoises, once very 
abundant, but the latter extinct early in this cen- 
tury. The Tile Fish ( Lopholatilus chaviaeleonti- 
ceps), with one of the strangest histories known. 
It was first discovered in March, 1879 , when a 
Gloucester schooner took about 6000 pounds; in 
1880 and 1881 a few were taken by the steamer of 
the XL S. Fish Commission; in March and April, 
1882 , an immense number of the dead fish-estima- 
ted at more than a billion —were observed floating 
over an area of 5000 to 7000 square miles; and no 
specimen has been reported since. 
Algerian Oases. 
Since the the French occupation of Tunis and 
Algeria some wonderful improvements have been 
made in what was prior to their advent among 
the most sterile regions in the face of the glole. 
By means of their so called system of colonisation 
saharienne , the Algerian Sahara which was for- 
merly nothing but sand is now rapidly being tran- 
sformed by the aid of artesian wells into the 
most luxuriant gardens. As one example of the 
wonderful changes they have wrought we may 
note the district of Biskra, called the Waddy li’hir. 
