Family, JERBOIDÆ. Dipus Jerboa, Desm. (jerboa). Very common on all the sandy plains where a stunted vegetation is found. During early morning these active little creatures may be seen bounding over the sands in all directions. Arab. "Djerboa." Dipus Egyptius, Wagn. (Egyptian jerboa). Confined to the southern portions of the Sahara. Dipus Deserti, Loche (desert jerboa). This very small and pale-coloured jerboa was discovered by Captain Loche in the environs of Waregla, whence I possess a specimen. Alactaga Arundinis, Cuv. (African alactaga). This animal, undistinguished by the natives from the jerboa, is generally distributed in all suitable localities. Gerbillus Melanurus, Gray (black-tailed gerbille). Hundreds of these lively animals may be seen sporting over the plains of Aïn Oosera and Aïn el Ibel every morning, as plentifully as rabbits in a warren. They burrow after the same fashion, having always two or more exits from their nest, and are extremely difficult to secure, as even when mortally wounded they contrive to escape into their holes and bury themselves in the sand. Gerbillus Campestris, Le Vaill. (field gerbille). Gerbillus Shauii, Duv. (Shaw's gerbille). Gerbillus Selysi, Pomel. (De Selys' gerbille). Besides these species, all of which occur in various localities, Captain Loche has described the three following, which I have seen in his collection, but have not had the good fortune to meet with myself. Gerbillus Gerbü, Loche (Gerbe's gerbille). Gerbillus Schoüsban, Loche (Schousboë's gerbille). Myoxus Mumbyanus, Pomel. (Algerian dormouse). Found in woods near Boghar. Ctenodactylus Masson, Gray (Gundi marmot). We met with this marmot in the rocks near Berryan. I have also seen many others, and am inclined to believe that a second and probably a third species occur in the rocky districts of the southern Sahara. Order, UNGULATA. Family, BOVIDE. Gazella Dorcas, Cuv. (gazelle). Found in small troops in every portion of the Sahara, and is the principal large game to be depended on for food, especially in the neighbourhood of the dayats beyond Laghouat, where its pasturage is abundant. The fawns are dropped in the early summer, and follow the dam until towards the end of autumn. The Bedouin gather the droppings, which have a strong aromatic scent, to mix with snuff. Arab. "Ghazala." Gazella Corinna, Cuv. (the corinna). Smaller than the preceding species, and with shorter horns. It appears to be confined chiefly to the more rocky districts of the south. Gazella Kevella, Cuv. (the kevel). Confined to the scantily wooded slopes on the southern spurs of the Atlas, especially south of Teniet el Haad, in western Algeria. Addax Nasomaculatus, Gray (Addax antelope). Exists sparingly in the vast region between Waregla and Souf, especially to the south of the latter. We saw one not far from Guerrara in the M'zab country. Arab. "Meha." Musimon Tragelaphus, Gerv. (maned moufflon). This magnificent sheep is far from uncommon throughout the whole of the mountain districts, whether wooded or bare. The officers of Laghouat frequently pursue them, but the chase is attended with no little difficulty and is seldom successful; for, true "wild goats," they betake themselves at once to the highest cliffs and rocks, and bound up the most inaccessible precipices. We saw one that had been shot as far east as the Tunisian Djereed. Arab. "Aoudad." Alcephalus Bubalis, Blain. (the bubale). The hunters of Souf frequently obtain this, the largest of the wild game of North Africa, but I do not think it ever ventures north of the Wed R'hir and M'zab districts, while its home is certainly further south. It is considered the most savoury meat of the desert epicure. It was well known to Shaw. Arab. "Bekkhra el wahch." ? Family, EQUIDE. Onager I have in p. 318 mentioned the wild ass of the Souf desert, but the species I am unable to decide. Family, SUIDE. Sus Scrofa, L. (wild boar). Sometimes found, as at Boghar, on the northern limits of the Sahara. NOTE. It seems evident that the larger wild animals of Northern Africa have been rapidly decreasing in numbers, and are in process of speedy extinction. Dr. Shaw, 150 years since, enumerates in his Travels (vol. i. pp. 310 seqq.) five species of large ruminants, which from his descriptions must be the bubale, the aoudad or wild sheep, the addax, and the gazelle, as well as the stag (omitted above, as not extending into the Sahara proper). It is certain that Dr. Shaw himself never penetrated beyond the coast, and yet he had seen all these creatures brought in by the natives. At present, with the exception of the common gazelle, none of them are ever seen in any of the markets: they are unknown even by name to the Arabs of the Tell, and few European colonists have ever heard of their existence. Yet the accurate and careful Shaw speaks of them all as common and familiar, much as an inhabitant of the Cape might write of the springbok. As the population has not increased, but rather retrograded, we can only surmise that the substitution of the flint and steel gun for the matchlock of the Bedouin, a change which has taken place within the present century, has been fatal in its results to all the larger game. APPENDIX V. BIRDS OF THE SAHARA. EACH portion of the Sahara—the rocky ridges, the sanddrifts, the plains, the chotts or salt-plains-has its peculiar ornithological characteristics. But by far the most interesting localities are, as might have been anticipated, the dayats and the oases. Here are the winter quarters of many of our familiar summer visitants. The chiff-chaff, willow-wren, and whitethroat, hop on every twig in the gardens shadowed by the never-failing palm; the swallow and the window martin thread the lanes, and sport over the mouths of the wells, in pursuit of the swarming mosquitoes; the hoopoe solemnly stalks on every dunghill, a cherished and respected guest; the white shrike perches motionless on the extremity of the palm-leaf; while a pair or more of the Egyptian turtle-dove nestle in the centre of almost every tree; and a random shot is pretty sure to start from under the dates a dozing "booma," or little owl. These peaceful retreats seem to be rarely visited by any Raptor more formidable than the kestrel. Not so in the dayats. Here the golden eagle, the royal and Arabian kites, hold court and courtship, and carry on a perpetual though bloodless warfare with the raven. The shrubs are occupied by the shrike, by small flocks of the long-tailed Numidian malurus, and the lovely little Moussier's warbler, whom I might almost term the ornithological feature of the dayat; whilst, heard but not seen, the Dartford warbler chirps forth his incessant pittěchou, pittěchou. If you wish to make acquaintance with the tribe of the rockchats and wheatears, you must follow the marmots to the rocky defiles of extinct streams, the "Weds" of the Bedouin. The hard, gravelly plains are the homes of the sandgrouse, and the various thick-billed and stout-billed larks; while the loose sands vainly conceal the burrowing beetles from the long bills of the ground-larks. On the surface of the chotts the little plovers and other grallatores incessantly run along, as if awaiting the returning tide of the primæval ocean which once swept over them. LIST OF BIRDS NOTED IN THE SAHARA. 1. Griffon Vulture (Gyps Fulvus). Arab. "Nissr.” As, happily for the traveller, camels do not die every day under the weight of their water-skins, the griffon does not habitually resort to the desert; still he occasionally gives it a passing call, though, if his meal be deposited near an oasis, he is usually forestalled by the hyæna, who lurks in the weds.* * On one occasion a camel in our caravan, having become footsore, had to be slaughtered on the spot, and his burden distributed among the others. Our attendants selected the tenderest morsels for kouskousou, and it was not till next morning that a vulture scented, or rather descried, his prey. That the vulture uses the organs of sight rather than those of smell seems evident from the immense height at which he soars and gyrates in the air. In this instance one solitary bird descended, and half an hour afterwards was joined by a second. A short time elapsed, and a Nubian vulture appeared self-invited at the feast; and before the bones were left to the hyæna, no less than nine griffons and two Nubians had broken their fast, though not satisfied their appetites. I have observed the same regular succession of diners out on other occasions. May we not conjecture that the process is as follows? The griffon who first descries his quarry descends from his elevation at once. Another, sweeping the horizon at a still greater distance, observes his neighbour's movements, and follows his course. A third, still further removed, follows the flight of the second; he is traced by another, and so a perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of flesh remains over which to consort. I can conceive no other mode of accounting for the numbers of vultures which, in the course of a few hours, will gather over a carcase, when previously the horizon might have been scanned in vain for more than one, or at the |