of animals. After a time one could see white streaks running down the dark blue sides of the tent from the ridge of the roof. Together with the previous ornamentation of white quirks and flourishes the effect was by no means unhappy.
Our menagerie, actually consisting of camels, dogs, hens and a few hired horses, numbered also an elegant and noble little jerboa that HinvarEL kept in a large empty box, and that he had almost succeeded in taming. On the bottom of the box was an open cage, lined with wadding. Here the jerboa made its bed every day. It was the prettiest and most graceful little animal when on its relatively large and strongly developed back legs it sat up to convey dandelion leaves to its mouth with two tiny little fore-paws. It was greyish brown and had very large, thin ears and enormous brown eyes. Being a night animal it became frisky and lively as soon as the sun went down. When at liberty the jerboa propels itself in the same way as does the kangaroo, using only its hind-legs, keeping its body almost erect. The tail, which is both long and sturdy and ends with a white tuft of hair provided with a black transverse band, is then also used as a support. The little creature showed not the slightest sign of fear and was intensely interested in everything. But its menu was peculiar, and not restricted to vegetables. The doctor once got the idea that it might need company, and he put a frog from the brook in its water-bowl. The next morning the frog's head was all that was left. Another episode that made the jerboa unpopular in the camp was its heartless devouring of the two delicate and helpless babies to which it gave birth in its nest of wadding. On a later occasion we caught another jerboa, also a female, and introduced it to the old one. It was killed the very first night by our cruel pet. As a punishment for its murderous instincts it was now also despatched and added to HvivrmEL's zoological collections.
A very vocal part of the animal-life in our immediate vicinity were the frogs. During the first few weeks of our stay here they filled the nights with their croaking love serenades. After a time, however, they grew silent, but swam about near the banks of the brook none the less merrily for that. They had a deplorable habit of hopping into our tents after rain and when the lamps had been lit.
We were also not without bird-life. Cranes seemed fond of the site, and were often to be seen on the banks of the stream at some little distance from the camp. Various • kinds of birds of prey, kites and eagles, hung about the camp and swooped down like arrows upon the entrails of antelope or sheep. A little lark had its nest at the foot of the nearest hill. The doctor added her egg to his collection; but she laid another. Presently it was hatched out; and when one crouched down near the nest the youngster gaped with his little red gullet and piped. We
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