Among the wild quadrupeds of Barbary may be mentioned the large herds of horned cattle of the neat and deer species, which abound in the moun tainous districts ; and of which one of the most re markable is the Fishtail or Lerwee, as it is called by Dr Shaw, or the Aoudad, according to MrJackson. It resembles a young heifer of about a year old ; has a long mane or beard from the lower part of its neck ; resides in the most inaccessible places ; throws itself headlong over lofty precipices when pursued, gene rally falling on its horns or shoulders ; is very seldom caught, and is not to be approached without great danmer. The rhinoceros, whose horn is capable of receiving a very high polish, and is sold in Barbary at an enormous price. The young of this animal have only one horn, till a certain age ; and, as one of its Arabic names is very similar in sound to the word which signifies a mare, it has been conjectured, that from this circumstance may have arisen, by mistake, the notion of the Unicorn. Among many other ani mals, not very well known in Europe, may be men . tioned the elegant black-eyed gaze], or antelope, which is remarkably swift and timid ; the horreh, a smaller kind of antelope, the emblem of cleanliness, as its name imports, celebrated for the brilliant white ness of its belly, for the preference given to its skin, by the Moors of distinction, as the fittest substance upon which they can prostrate themselves in prayer, and for the concretion found in its testicle or sto mach, called the bezoar stone, so much valued as an antidote against poison ; the thaleb, or little red fox, which is very destructive to the young vines, and re markable for its shrill and piercing cry ; the sibsib, an intermediate species between the rat and squirrel, accounted by the Arabs a great delicacy, and the on ly animal which the Mahommedans torment with a view to improve the taste of its flesh ; the ape, which is seen in great numbers, and found of a very large size in North Atlas ; besides the deeb, or jackal, Jerboa, porcupine, hare, rabbit, weasel, Sze. Of the more ferocious wild animals, the chief are the lion, the leopard, the panacr, which are all occasionally ra venous invaders of the Arab encampments, and some times even infest the roads, in the neighbourhood of large towns ; the wild boar, whose strength is here proverbial, but which seldom attacks men, unless he be previously roused by some provocation ; the hycena, or dubbah, which, in Barbary, is more stu pid than fierce, and whose RA I, as it is asserted by the Arabs, occasions a temporary stupefaction ; the wild eat, which is large and strong, and, when pres sed with hunger, will sometimes attack the traveller with great ferocity ; the bear, or dubb, is very sel dom seen, and inhabits only the upper regions of Atlas, which are continually covered with snow.
Domestic fowls, house-pigeons, and sparrows, re sembling those of Europe, are remarkably plentiful in Barbary. There is a great variety of the duck species, but the common geese and turkeys are sel dom seen. The towns, in the, summer season, are much frequented by storks, which are treated with great veneration by all Mussulmen, as being emble matical of conjugal affection, and also as being very destructive to many noxious reptiles. Among the wild fowl, may be mentioned, wood-pigeons, wild geese, herons, bustards, flamingoes, pelicans, plovers ; partridges, which are much larger and finer feather ed than those of Europe ; curlews, which are found in great abundance ; cuckoos, which are esteemed a great delicacy by the Arabs ; wood•cock, which, from the largeness of its head, is called by the na tives, the ass of the partridges; el hagc, a small ci nereous-coloured bird, which lives upon insects of the beetle kind, which it sticks upon thorns, and does not eat till they begin to putrify : It has its name from the circumstance of its accompanying the cara tans which go to Mecca. The crow of the desert is a beautiful bird, somewhat larger than the common raven, with the legs and bill of a red colour. The ostrich abounds in the confines of Sahara ; and those which are taken near Cape Bojador are of the largest size, and hare the finest plumage of any in the world. There are also various kinds of singing-birds in this country, the lark, the nightingale, the thrush, the starling, the blackbird, and especially the capsa spar row, which is larger than the common sparrow, and coloured like the lark, which has a very sweet and melodious note, superiol to that of the canary bird, or of the nightingale, but which is so peculiarly de licate in its temperament, that it soon pines away in the smallest.change of climate. Among the birds of prey in North Africa, the most deserving of notice are the nesser, or vulture, which, next to the ostrich, is the largest. bird in that quarter of the globe, and which feeds chiefly upon the horned beetle, that is found upon the gum-ammoniac plant ; and the eagle, the largest species of which has an exceedingly clear and beautiful eye of an orange colour, and is the bird, as the Africans believe, which engenders the dragon upon the, female hyena.
On the coasts of Barbary is found the greatest abundance of excellent fish, particularly mullet, brim, anchovies, sardines, herring, mackarel, cod, skaite, soles, plaice, turbot, turtle. A very firm and well
tasted barbel, eels, and shebbel, are very common in the rivers, the last mentioned of which is similar to the salmon, and is extremely rich and delicate. Im mense quantities of it are salted or baked, and sent into the interior of the country, where it is consider ed as an excellent corrective of the bad effects some times produced by an immoderate use of dates. Whales have occasionally been cast ashore on those parts, which are washed by the Atlantic, but very rarely on the coast of the Mediterranean ; and, in these cases, considerable quantities of ambergris are generally found along with the stranded fish. There is not much shell fish on these coasts. Shrimps, prawns, crabs, and Fray fish, indeed, are not uncom mon. Oysters also have been found near Algiers ; and the muscles there are both very excellent and abundant. Land tortoises are of a good quality, and of a very large size, sometimes weighing between four and six but the inhabitants do not use them as food, and seldom catch them, except when employed. by Europeans for the purpose.
In the country of Barbary the insect tribes are ex tremely numerous, of a great variety of shapes, and remarkable brilliancy of colours. There arc butter flies, libelhe, and beetles, three inches in length, and four inches between the extremities of the wings, when extended. The most remarkable of the beetle species is the dibben fashook,' which has a long horn proceeding from the upper part of its mouth, with which it perforates the ammoniac plant, and makes the incisions from which the gum oozes out. The cicada or cricket is of a very large size, and makes an incessant piercing noise during the night. The gnats, or musquitos, are extremely numerous, espe cially on the banks of lakes, and are very keen in their attacks upon Europeans ; but the thick skins of the Arabs, exposed daily to the scorching heat of the sun, are impenetrable to their bite. But of all the insects of Barbary, the most formidable and abun dant is the locust, which always come from the South, and often continues its visits for three, five, or seven years. \Olen the swarms of these insects ap proach, they resemble an immense cloud darkening the sun ; and when they settle on the ground to carry on their devastations, they are often crowded upon each other to the depth of several inches. They all ad vance in the same direction, climbing over every ob stacle in their progress, clearing the ground of every vegetable substance, consuming even the bark of the trees, and announcing their approach, at a consider able distance, by the noise of their feeding. In or der to give a new direction to their course, the inha bitants are accustomed to dig pits and trenches across their path, which they fill with water, or with combus tible materials to be set on fire at their approach; but so immense are the numbers of these destroyers, and so eagerly do they press forward their ranks, that the trenches are soon filled, and the flames complete ly extinguished by the constant succession of new swarms. A few gardens in the neighbourhood of towns are sometimes preserved from their voracity, by means of a palisade of reeds, inclining towards a ditch on the outside, so that the locusts, being un able to climb up this slippery and sloping bulwark, fall back into the trench, and devour one another. They partially disappear during the rainy season ; and are frequently carried away by hurricanes into the sea. During those periods of desolation, the lo custs are very generally used as food, and are even esteemed a great delicacy ; but the lower classes of people, by living entirely upon them, are said to be come very meagre and indolent ; and; whether from this circumstance, or from the pestilential midi of the dead locusts, or from some other cause, the vi sits of these destructive insects are frequently ed by the plague. Scorpions, resembling a small lobster, about three inches in length, abound in stony places, and old ruins ; and often infest the ci ties so much, that, in order to guard against their attacks, the inhabitants are accustomed to place the feet of their bed-steads in tubs or pans of water : The sting of the yellow coloured is the most venom ous; and the flesh of the animal itself, applied to the wound, is the most effectual cure. Of the various kinds of serpents found in Barbary, two only are highapoisonous ; namely, the buskah, of a black coloalk seven or eight feet long, with a small head, which expands to three or four times its usual size, when about to make its attack ; and the el effah, or dipsas, about two feet in length, and of the thickness of a man's arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown. The boak, or desert snake, an enormous monster, from twenty to eighty feet long, and thick as the body of a man, is not indeed of a venomous nature ; but the velocity of its motion, which it is almost impossible to escape, and the greatness of its strength, which is able to crush the bones of an ox in its grasp, milder it sufficiently formidable to the traveller. There are also domestic serpents in this country, some of which are to be found in almost every house, and whose presence is considered as a benediction upon the family.