74 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



There are two very distinct tides of Sylviad immigration in 

 Palestine. In October and November thousands of the hardier 

 species pour down into the lowlands and wadys, where they 

 remain till February or March. Then for a month the land is 

 left almost deserted^ till in April and May the spring arrivals 

 commence, and every thicket is tenanted by species either 

 strange to our shores or known only by the occasional capture 

 of a straggler. Such are S. orphea, Aedon galactodes, Hypolais 

 elaica, and H. upcheri. We were especially fortunate in our op- 

 portunities of watching the nidification of the less-known species ; 

 and I believe there is no class of birds in which the style of 

 architecture, with the coloration and form of the egg, casts more 

 light on the true grouping of species and the arrangement of 

 genera. Possessed of a good series of the eggs of the Lusci- 

 niidcB, we might classify the species accordingly, and find that 

 we had scaicely in one instance diverged from the recognized 

 order of our best systematists. Thus the unique egg of Cettia 

 sericea separates it at once from all our other Palsearctic Warblers, 

 and points out its affinities to the long-tailed Prinio group of the 

 Indian region. Then the eggs of Savi's and the Grasshopper- 

 Warbler group them apart, and link them to the very similar 

 eggs of the Australian Megalurus and Calamanthus. Cisticola 

 and Drymoeca, varying as they do, still vary within the same 

 limits as the Oriental Prinia and Orthotomus, to which we 

 must admit their affinities. The egg of Aedon stands out alone, 

 steadily demanding a distinct and isolated position, which all who 

 are familiar with its manners and note will readily grant, but ap- 

 proaching in habit, as in its eggs, the Indian Thamnohice. 



The great group of Calamoherpe, from whatever part of the 

 world they come, have but one unmistakeable character of 

 egg, sharply defined from all the other groups. The beau- 

 tiful and fragile eggs of every member of the genus Hypolais, 

 though each distinct in markings and in ground-colour, from 

 the richest salmon hue to pale ashy white, but all of a peculiar 

 rough texture, are a group almost as isolated and peculiar as 

 Pycnonotus, with no affinities approaching Phyllopneuste. These 

 again, though infinitely varying within themselves, disclaim 

 alliance with any of the other Sylviads. We then have the 



