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The Kia ora coo-ee : the magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918

Nature Studies in Palestine

page 17

Nature Studies in Palestine

Æons before Moses lay kicking his baby heels in the bulrushes, Palestine was peopled by wild creatures, and perhaps the Land was promised to them and their seed for ever, so that the Israelites had no real title to possession when they came out of Egypt. But truth lies hidden in the misty past, and whichever way the promise went, the descendants of those pioneer in-habitants cling tenaciously to their heritage, All the long centuries that have rolled away have left them conquerors.

Some there are, as the jerbils and scarabs, that multiply like rabbits, and are countless as the sands of Malala Beach. When Nature dredged Palestine from the sea, she made a Decree, that wild life should flourish there till Doomsday, and her will is stronger than man's. The Desert will never be tamed, nor the plains and the blue hills be wholly won from wild Nature's realm. Spring still strews her buds and flowers all over the land, and the little grey larks sing over barren country and green fields just as they did when chariots raced from Jerusalem to Gaza.

The fauna consists of creatures great and small. To begin with the pygmies. Fleas and chats (Mallophaga) are Billjim's bane. I cannot find a word to say in their favour; they are simply misquoise. Coming to beetles, we are in much belter company, though even these are "hard cases", at least, they have horny wing covers! The king of the tribe is Scarabeus sacri, the sacred scarab of ancient Egypt, which is limned on the walls of old temples and tombs in the valley of the Nile. The scarab doesn't distribute a pleasant perfume, to put the case delicately, but it deserves our regard as a tireless scavenger, and for whiling a way hours that would have been dull had we not watch d its comical ways. It is funny to us but scarabs don't trundle big bills on the Desert for amusement; those spheres of refuse matter, which they push with great splay feet, are their nurseries.

Spring, of course, is butterfly time, when hosts of insects float over the flowers on airy wings. The commonest kind is a white butterfly. Then there are brilliant "Admirals" and "Blues", and the golden brown "Wanderer, a species also found in Australia and many other lands, its original home being Brazil. Moths with damask wings fly softly in the twilight. Down in the Wadis dragon-flies, splendid in scarlet and azure mail, dart over the water or cling to the stems of acquatic plants. " Horse-stingers" Billjim calls them, but they do not sting and have no particular liking for equine company. Their quest is for flies and midges; good luck to their hunting. As for that monstrous spider, Galeodes, or Abu Shabat, as the Arabs call it, we find seores of them wherever we camp. They are the fiercest of Desert creatures, Berserkers that are never happy unless in action with scorpions, or other foes worthy of their steel. Two kinds of scorpions are common, one is pale yellow and the other black; both are venomonous, but their poison is not fatal, many soldiers having been stung, and recovered from the effects in a day or two. Scorpions carry their young in the same manner as the native bear (Koala), running around with the babies on their backs.

Reptiles are very abundant in Palestine, lizards and snakes of all sons and sizes. They have a little way of dropping into see one, as it were, and if you are not at home in the bivvy, crawl between the blankets or coil themselves in nooks and corners, snug lodgings for the night. Most of the snakes are non venomous, but there is a sufficient number of the other ciass, which includes the Cobra and the horned viper. It wasoneof the latter kind, probably, that Cleopatra caressed when she wished to die. Among harmless reptiles are the beautiful flowered snake, slender sand snakes, and a number of smaller kinds, some no thicker than a lead pencil.

Lizards are legion. The prettiest perhaps is the sand skink (Chalcides seroides), whose body resembles a tube of policed grass. It has tiny eyes and is a lover of darkness, spending most of its life tinder the sand, through which it travels like a burrowing mole. None of the Promised Land lizards is poisonous,—I know of only one venomous hzard, a native of Arizona, U. S A.—so they may be handled with impunity. Very numerous is the fringe-fingered lizard (Acan-thodactylus syriacus). There is a specimen at Giza Zoo, which came from near Ramleh. The burrows of this quaint little reptile are scattered all over Desert and plains.

Jerbils are as plentiful as lizards. There are some 30 different kinds, and every one of them is pretty and graceful. The species that burrows in our bivvies is named Gerbillus tarabuli, though it lives in blissful ignorance of the fact. One I kept as a pet was plain "Bill", and he got along all right with that moniker. He was a jolly little beggar; nibbled biscuits out of one's hand, sitting up the while like a kangaroo rat, and often at night he used my recumbent form as a parade ground, Jerbils make delightful pets, but they are mischievous enough, and when they get busy in his store tent, the Q. M. uses words which are unprintable.

Hedgehogs are found in some places. There is another small beastie, which the boys call a mole; it is really a rodent, but entitled to the hyphen name, mole-rat. "Mole" runs are common enough, but it is rare to see one of the burrowers on the surface. Hyanas are not plentiful in Palestine, and that is no cause for regret, for they are sneaking, treacherous unclean beasts. Jackals and Desert dogs come prowling round the camps at night, and when hunger spurs them on, are very daring. They walk in darkness, and it is difficult to learn their ways. The gem of all Palestine creatures is the slender-horned gazelle (Gazella leptoceros) a shy, swift-footed animal, with beautiful large eyes.