'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎71] (182/258)

OBSERVATIONS ON BAGHDAD,
71
taming to the Zoology of Irak, Babylonia or Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. as it is mor^
generally called. Specimens of the two latter I have already sent to
Government, with a few of the minor insectivora included with them But
we have here the lion, the wild boar, the hyena, wild cat, jackal, hares,
porcupine, antelope, and spotted deer of the larger mammalia, besides a
plentiful supply of the ordinary domestic animals, superior and inferior, of all
communities, including the buffalo and camel. The leopard, cheetah and
bear are to be met with also in the adjoining mountains of Kurdistan. Of
reptiles and insects there are a goodly number, and the catalogue will shew
they are sufficiently obnoxious to man. Snakes, no great variety and but
one or two species of a venomous character—these are ready met with. Water
snakes plentiful, but harmlesss ; scorpions large, abundant and venomous; wasps
and drones, the same; bees scarce; musquitoes of five distinct kinds, and horse,
probocis, and sand flies, all numerous and of very active, malignant habits,
from the latter part of spring to the middle of summer they are ushered in by
colonies of fleas. These drawbacks to comfort, however, end in the autumn ;
and a short sojourn in these countries soon renders one comparatively indiffer
ent to them, and to many other annoyances of highly civilised life. Varieties of
arichnidoe are plentiful, and myriapoda are common enough in the jungles
about the river. The zealous entymologist will find also a swarming multitude
of coleoptera, orthoptera, and neroroptera, besides many beautiful species of
epidoptera if he be inclined to woo them with the midnight lamp on a calm
summer’s night. Some small specimens of fresh water Crustacea may be met
with in the swamps and creeks, and a few varieties of mollusca are known.
Entozoa exist in many of the animals, and the stomach of the pelican is almost
always literally swarming with these parasites.
With the flora and plants of a larger growth, I am not very familiar. What
renders the tract more celebrated in this respect than it would otherwise be,
is its being the native country of the date, a tree which provides food for men,
and animals, even in a region where at times in vigorous winters they might
otherwise starve. I have not space to enumerate the fifty-two varieties which
are known of this Viseful tree ; but it is related that in the flourishing period of
the Khalifate, Irak was so overspread with it, that on the main roads the tra
veller could pursue his way sheltered from the fierce rays of the sun. It is
no longer the case now, for excepting the groves which skirt the river banks
from the sea to the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris, and which extend
in patches as far as Hilleh on the former river, there are none to be met with
m all the tract until Baghdad is approached. Here immediately adjoining
the city and at the villages watered by the Diyaleh, a few groves exist, which
yield a plentiful enough supply, through considered as inferior in quality to the
dates around Basreh; under the prevailing neglect these groves are diminishing