A list of some of the insects I collected will be found in [Appendix II.]
The road that we followed to the south-west from Dakhla lay in the direction from which the birds were migrating, so I not only noted every specimen that we saw, but put down in my route book every feather that I picked up, and even the marks on the sand where these migrants had alighted, as this was all valuable evidence that we were still travelling in the right direction.
In addition to palm doves and the smaller migrants, we several times saw storks and cranes, or their tracks; but this, of course, only occurred during the season of their migration. There was a large white bird, which appeared to be an eagle, that we frequently saw at all seasons, but I was never able to get very close to it, as, unlike most desert creatures, it was extremely wild.
The only place where I ever saw any sand grouse, outside the oases, was on the road between Kharga and Dakhla. They seemed to be entirely absent from the desert to the south and south-west of Dakhla, and also from the desert surrounding Farafra Oasis—the reason of their absence presumably being the lack of food.
Not only were insects, reptiles and birds fairly well represented in the desert, but even mammals were not unknown. In addition to the desert rats, about eighty miles to the south of Dakhla I came across the remains of a gazelle, but possibly the poor little beast had only wandered out into the desert to die. Small foxes, though they existed in the oasis, I never saw in the desert—the rats would not have been so numerous if I had. The tracks of a larger fox were seen several times, often several days’ journey away from an oasis. The tracks of jackals, or wolves, I could not be sure which, were still oftener encountered.
The dog tribe, of course, could live on the rats and lizards, but, unless they obtained sufficient moisture from the blood of their victims, they must have returned occasionally to the oases to drink. One wonders why these animals, who can live also in the oases, should prefer to exist in the desert, where the conditions under which they are forced to live must make life almost impossible.
The problem of how the desert rats exist has caused much discussion, and cannot yet be said to be solved. I have found them certainly a good hundred and fifty miles from any oasis, in a part quite barren, yet they were obviously perfectly healthy, plump and lively.
I was once camped for several weeks in the dune belt that runs through Kharga Oasis. One evening I had just sat down to dinner, when I noticed one of these little kangaroo rats hopping about in the candle-light just outside the door of my tent. A sudden movement that I made scared him. He jumped about four feet and was gone in a flash.
But in a minute or two, prompted probably by curiosity, he was back again in his old place, hovering about just outside the tent. Hoping to get a better look at him, I flipped a small piece of bread so that it fell just in front of him. After some hesitation, he pounced on to it, and carrying it a few yards away, proceeded to eat it.
He then came back again, stationing himself a little nearer in, and seized another piece of bread I threw him that dropped about half-way between us. Soon I had him taking pieces actually out of my hand—he was extraordinarily tame.