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



the Arabs, Every second nest discovered was sure to be Sylvia 

 cinerea ; but with our Bedouin one nest was as good as another, 

 and off one had to trudge, perhaps from watching some rare 

 Bunting or Redstart, to inspect our familiar friend, whom we 

 scorned to disturb. The Palestine specimens are much clearer 

 in plumage than our own, and slightly larger ; the tail, how- 

 ever, is too long to suit Mr. Blyth's diagnosis of Sylvia affinis. 

 It is curious that, while this bird and S. curruca are alike cold- 

 weather visitants to India, S. cinerea is a permanent resident, 

 but S. curruca only a spring migrant in Palestine. It returned 

 in March, and was very common in the hill-country, breeding 

 everywhere. We found its eggs high up on Lebanon the second 

 week in June, elsewhere in May. Sylvia hortensis we only 

 found in spring, and it remained to breed ; while S. atricapilla 

 was far more abundant in winter than afterwards, though still 

 common enough. In winter it was gregarious, and all the 

 males we shot were in the same livery as the females, the black 

 cap not being assumed till March. 



On the bare highlands of the wilderness of Judsea, and 

 on the desolate plains of Jordan, a few individuals of S. con- 

 spicillata might constantly be seen, flitting briskly from one 

 little tuft of salsola to another, and, as in Malta and the Sahara, 

 permanent residents. In the salt-plain, at the south end of 

 the Dead Sea, I shot in January a single specimen of Sylvia 

 dorice, a species which I took to be new, but which I find very 

 accurately defined by Dr. De Filippi ( Viaggio in Persia, p. 348). 

 He found it very abundant in salt-deserts. The Rev. F. W. 

 Holland has also brought it from the Sinaitic peninsula. Riip- 

 pell's Warbler, Sylvia capistrata, is another permanent resident, 

 but scarce, and only found in similar localities to S.melanocephala, 

 which is very generally distributed, and remains throughout the 

 year in the scrub on the sides of the upland wadys, secreting 

 itself, after the manner of our Wood-Wren, in the bushes of 

 Poterium and Lentisk. We met with twenty specimens of the 

 Sardinian for one of RiippelFs Warbler. We were unable to 

 make any observations on the habits and nidification of this 

 rave and little-known species. In Algeria both birds are like- 

 wise resident ; but while I there obtained many nests of S. 



