PREFACE. ix 



formerly, though now extinct, Strnthio camehis. As to the occurrence of 

 these desert species no difficulty can arise, especially in the case of such 

 of them as extend through the whole belt of sandy waste which girdles 

 the whole Old World from Scinde to the Atlantic Coast of Africa. 



The most interesting of the Indian non- Ethiopian species is Kctiipa 

 ceylonensis, and the occurrence of this great fish-eating owl is the more 

 exceptional, as not only are there no Strigidce in Africa bearing the least 

 affinity to this well-marked genus, but because it has not yet been found 

 in the Jordan valley, but sedentary by the streams of the coast. We have 

 hitherto no record of its occurrence elsewhere west of India. 



Of the Indian types, RegtUoides superciliosiis and Sylvia nana pertain 

 equally as straggling migrants to the western Palcearctic region ; Halcyon 

 smyrncnsis and Turtiir 7'isoj'nts, which are both sedentary in the Jordan 

 valley, are the only other instances of so great a westward extension of 

 purely Indian species. But both have appeared as stragglers in Asia 

 Minor, where the former was known to Linnaeus, but lost to science till 

 rediscovered by Captain Graves, R.N. 



Of the 30 species classed as either new or peculiar to Palestine, 13 are 

 merely modifications or representative forms of familiar Palsearctic types, 

 such as Gan'iilus atricapillus, Picas syriacns, Saxicola mclanolcuca, etc., 

 which take the place of the common western G. glandarius, P. major, 

 S. stapazina, etc., and which are all found in the upper country or on the 

 coast. Several of the other new species are closely allied to known desert 

 or Oriental forms, and are found beyond the limits of the Dead Sea basin. 

 Such S.VQ. Hypolais upcheri, Erithactts gtUturalis, Saxicola finschii, Petronia 

 bj'achydactyla. These are also clearly African in their affinities. One, 

 Ruticilla semirnfa, inhabiting the hill country, is closely affined to the 

 Indian group of Ruticillincc, and not to the Palsearctic or Ethiopian 

 members of the genus. 



But there are 1 1 species belonging to as many different genera, 

 peculiar to the Dead Sea basin, and not yet traced beyond its limits. 

 Some of these belong to genera exclusively Ethiopian, most of them 

 common to the Ethiopian and Indian regions; but of two at least the 

 affinities are Indian rather than African. Caprimiilgtis ia7naricis is 

 perhaps most closely related to C. asiaticus of India, but with the charac- 

 teristic plumage of C. isabellinus of Africa. Passer inoabiiicus, another 



