Census of Birds and Flowers in Palestine
While murder and outrage have been making all the news from Palestine, our soldiers with some civilians have been engaged in taking a census—and it is of peculiar interest to naturalists—of both the birds and flowers of the country. From time to time I have received letters from ardent naturalists in Palestine, but this census is of a thoroughness of which I had no conception. The country, in spite of much barrenness, is very rich in the flora and fauna ; but, so far as my own few days of experience go, one flower is supreme. The Coronaria anemones, which are held to be the lilies of the New Testament, are as outstanding as the primroses of Devon. They decorate even the course of the railways with scarlet patches, and I found many other sorts of different colours in the neighbourhood of Haifa, some of them encircling a plant of mandrag- ora. On some of the hills, notably Mount Carmel, the cylamens are almost as salient. As to birds, my most vivid recollection is of members of the crow tribe circling over the spot where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. The attraction was the fish which came to the surface dead within a few yards of the river. The salt seemed to be instantly mortal, and .anyone who has bathed or boated on that strange water, so many feet below sea-level, will appreciate the extent of the concentration.
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