Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 93 



a few miles off would meet with two or three of the other. I 

 believe that in Nubia they are said to intermingle. There is 

 not the slightest difference between the sexes*. 



While riding across the southern wilderness from the south 

 end of the Dead Sea, we came upon a rolling plain to the south 

 of Moladah, a day's journey east of Beersheba, covered with 

 stunted scrub, chiefly of Passerina hirsuta, on a loose sandy soil. 

 All exactly resembled what is called the Forest of the Chambaa 

 in the Sahara. Larks were flocked in thousands ; Sand-Grouse of 

 three or four species ran on in the distance or rose in clouds with 

 a whirr and a scream ; the Common Dotterels mingled with 

 Charadrius asiaticus were feeding in myriads, unconcerned at 

 our presence. Bird nature was indeed alive, in glad contrast to 

 the lifeless rocks over which we had recently scrambled. Here 

 we renewed acquaintance with two species which I first described 

 from specimens shot in the Chambaa wilderness (Ibis, 1859, 

 p. 58), Calandrella reboudia and Saxicola philothamna. For the 

 moment I seemed transported to the Sahara. Almost every bird, 

 every plant around was identical. S. philothamna was most 

 abundant. I believe we secured about a dozen in an hour; and 

 the birds were not in flocks, but in scattered pairs. Yet it has 

 nowhere been discovered in the intervening 1500 miles between 

 its two known habitats. We never saw it afterwards; and 

 the scrub where it resided cannot be more than ten miles in 

 extent. It has been subjected to a divorcing process in its 

 nomenclature. The female used to stand alone in the Berlin 

 Museum, marked Saxicola ruficeps ; and again, unless I mistake, 

 Sig. De Filippi has renamed a female specimen Dromol(Ea chrij- 

 sopygia f. 



The Common Wheatear, S. cenanthe, we never saw in winter 

 or till 19th March, when Carmel was covered with them. They 

 only remained a few days, and then passed northwards. Most 

 of them were of the large-billed variety named S. rostrata by 

 Ehrenb., but we got others with bills no larger than English spe- 

 cimens. On the top of Hermon and Lebanon, close to the snow, 



* Of most of these Claats T liave given fiill descriptions in * The Ibis,' 

 1859p, p. 296-301, which render a more lengthened account unnecessary, 

 t {_Cf. supra, pr. 61.— Ed.] 



