Rev. II. B. Tristram on the Ornithulofjij of Palestine. 75 



genus Sylvia as restricted by Bonaparte, of which our White- 

 throat is the type, with its greenish ground-colour and the 

 spotting ditierent in each species; while Melizophilus and Pijroph- 

 ihalmus are evidently aberrant members of the same family. 

 Next we may take the Curruca as restricted by Bonaparte, with 

 the eggs always of a whitish or brownish -white ground, and the 

 markings set each in a nimbus of fainter colour, as in our Black- 

 cap and Garden Warblers ; while Nisuria undata, a good genus, 

 comes next them by its ground-colour, but wants the spots. 



The Redbreast, pugnacious as he always is, stands aloof 

 from any entangling alliances, and asserts an independent posi- 

 tion as Ei-ythacus, which introduces us to Mr. Gray's subfamily 

 of Lusciniince, comprising all the remaining Sylviads. Here we 

 find a character pervading almost the whole subfamily in the 

 coloration of the eggs, which is never found in the first subfamily 

 Sylviina, viz. the blue or bluish-white ground-colour. Co- 

 psychus, Myiomela, Saxicola, Ruticilla, Thamnobia, and all their 

 subdivisions have this common feature. The most aberrant are 

 the genera Luscinia and Cyanecula, with their uniform olive- 

 green coloration. But, as we well know, the Nightingale's egg 

 is not unfrequently blue, and the identity of the colour in the 

 eggs of the Bluethroats attests their affinity to the Nightingale. 

 All the innumerable species of Saxicolina lay blue eggs, either 

 plain or spotted ; and frequently, as in the Turdince, we find two 

 closely affined species laying one a plain, the other a spotted egg ; 

 while occasionally the eggs of comparatively distant members 

 of the family are identical, as in the case of Saxicola cenanthe 

 and S. isahellina. Of the five species of the subgenus Dromolcea, 

 of which I have taken the eggs, four are of the faintest bluish- 

 white, with ruddy spots, and the fifth a rich blue ground with 

 similar spots. From these we are led on to Ruticilla, the eggs 

 of which are never spotted, though the ground-colour varies 

 from pure white in the single instance of R. tithys to the most 

 delicate white with the faintest bluish tinge in R. moussieri, up 

 to the very dark blue of R. semirufa, a bird most closely allied 

 to R. tithys. Finally, we have the spotless blue of Sialia and 

 Accentor, with which last I find much difficulty in grouping 

 Mr. Gray's Acunthiza, or the Siicrus of the New World. 



