Rural Thoughts In a Holy Land by Thomas Curd
This is a charming memoir by a man who entered the British Section of the Palestine Police in the 1930s. He passes on much information both about police procedure in Palestine and about the natural fauna he encounters in the course of his duties.
For instance he describes lying in ambush near Lydda for a notorious bandit, In the course of the night he encounters a Mauretaniam tortoise, a mole rat and a barn owl, He takes the opportunity to give the reader full descriptions, of the animals themselves, their habits and their distribution,
On another occasion when describing an incident where he has guard the body of Professor Starkey, a well known archaeologist killed by bandits, he tells of his pleasure at spotting, for the first time, a pair of morning Chats and then goes on to describe in detail their habits and preferred locations. Margaret Penfold