32 FAUNA AXD FLORA OF FALESTiyE. 



The Rock Thrush is a summer visitor to Southern Europe and 

 Northern Africa, and spreads through Central Asia to Cashmere, 

 Yarkand, Turkestan, as far as the Pekin Mountains. 



7. Saxicola cenanthe. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 332. Wheatear. 



The Wheatear is only seen in Southern Palestine at the periods of the 

 spring and autumn migrations. In the hill country of Galilee, and in 

 the mountain ranges of Lebanon and Hermon, the Wheatear breeds and 

 remains till autumn. The first specimens I noted were on 19th March, 

 on Mount Carmel. On Mount Hermon I found it breeding in large 

 numbers, close to the snow, in the beginning of June. Many of the 

 Palestine specimens are exceptionally large and very bright in plumage, 

 and were differentiated by Ehrenberg under the name of Saxicola rostrata. 

 But, with a series of Palestine specimens before one, it is impossible to 

 draw the line. 



The Common Wheatear is the most widely distributed of its family, 

 being found from Greenland and Iceland throughout all Europe and 

 North Asia, and across Behring's Straits in Alaska. Southwards it 

 extends from the Azores and Canaries to Kordofan and Abyssinia, and as 

 far as the frontier of North India and Northern China. 



8. Saxicola, isabellina. Rtipp. Atlas, p. 52, pi. 34. Isabelline 

 Chat or Menetries' Wheatear. 



The Isabelline Chat resides throughout the year in Southern Palestine. 

 In the north it visits the lower ranges of Hermon and Lebanon to breed, 

 nesting about an hour or two's walk lower down than the Common 

 Wheatear, and soon withdrawing with its young to the plains, where it is 

 very numerous. In North Syria and Mesopotamia it is the most abundant 

 of all the Passerine birds. 



This bird only touches Europe in South-Eastern Russia, but extends 

 through North-east Africa, Asia Minor, and Arabia to Persia, North 

 India, Siberia, and North China. 



9. Saxicola atirila. Temm. Man. d'Orn. i., p. 221. Eared Chat. 

 The Black-eared Chat returns to the Holy Land about the third week 



in March, always a few days later than its congener, Saxicola melanoleuca, 

 and immediately spreads itself by twos and threes all over the plain 



