86 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



169. Yunx torquilla. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 172. Wryneck. 



The Wryneck is a summer migrant to Palestine. I have observed it 

 occasionally wherever there is wood, and sometimes in mere scrub. 



It extends from the British Isles to Japan, and down to Central Africa, 

 India, and China. 



FAMILY, ALCEDINID^. 



170. Alcedo ispida. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 179. Common King- 

 fisher. Arabic, U)l la-^sy*, Mekhiet el 7na. 



Our little English Kingfisher is scattered everywhere throughout the 

 country where there are streams, and also on the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean. It is nowhere abundant, and is unaffected by climate, fishing 

 indifferently in the little torrents of the Lebanon, among the ruined 

 columns of Tyre, or in the seething swamps of the Jordan valley. In the 

 Lebanon it is the only species. All the three indigenous species of King- 

 fisher resort to the shores of the Dead Sea, attracted by the shoal of 

 fishes which are brought down by the fresh water streams, and stupefied 

 by the brine of the lake. 



The Common Kingfisher inhabits all temperate Europe, North 

 Africa and Northern Asia, as far as Scinde. Eastward, in India, 

 China, and Japan, it is represented by a closely allied species, Alcedo 

 bengalensis. 



171. Ceryle rudis. (Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 181.) Pied Kingfisher. 

 Arabic, sC*^)l J-wo, Saiad el semaJik, 'The Fish-hunter.' 



This is the most conspicuous and common species in every part of the 

 country where there is water, salt or fresh. It is particularly abundant 

 about Tyre and Sidon, and round the lake of Galilee. On the plain of 

 Gennesaret there is a great breeding place in the bank of a tiny streamlet, 

 where I found thirty nests. The holes are burrowed a few inches above 

 the water's edge, and unlike the burrow of the Bee-eater, which has a 

 sharp turn about a yard from the entrance, the nest is in a hole scooped 

 by the side of the little tunnel. It is a beautiful sight to watch a party of 

 these birds hovering petrel-like over the water, and now and again 



