Rev. H. B. Tristram on the OrnithuJogy of Palestine. 95 



The S. leucomela, Pall., with the black back and white vent- 

 coverts, we only obtained once, but may often have overlooked 

 it J but the S. lugens, Licht. {S. leucomela, Temminck), with 

 the russet vent-coverts, was very common throughout the year 

 in the rocky regions overhanging the Jordan valley and in the 

 Judsean wilderness. If S. libanotica were Israelite, /S. lugens was 

 of Judah ; for never out of Rchoboam's kingdom did we find it. 

 There it remained, its plumage varying neither from sex nor 

 season, always at once to be identified by its ruddy vent. While 

 we shot it by the shores of the Dead Sea, it also resorted to the 

 fallow fields of the uplands ; and on one occasion I found a nest 

 (with young instead of eggs, fortunately or unfortunately as the 

 case might be) in the stone wall of a barley-field. We once took 

 the eggs exactly like those of S. libanotica. 



Of what we may term the Stapazine subdivision of the section, 

 five species occurred to us. Of my Saxicola halophila I obtained 

 but one specimen, under Jebel Usdum, the salt-mountain, where 

 also alone S. monacha occurred. My type specimen I also pro- 

 cured at a salt-mountain in the Sahara. Another species, similar 

 in its habitat but much more widely diffused, S. deserti, Riipp., 

 frequents the shores of the Dead Sea, north and south. It is 

 frequently found in Africa, east and west, in Arabia, and is 

 stated by Jerdon to be also common in suitable localities in 

 Northern India. It differs from S. stapazina of Europe in 

 its head and back being sand-coloured instead of rufous, and 

 the black of the throat extending down the breast and on to the 

 shoulder. It is also a permanent resident. In its winter dress 

 the black portions of the plumage are powdered and mottled 

 with white on the borders of the feathers. 



But the exact analogue of the Western >S^. stapazina is S. 

 eurymelcena, H. & Ehrenb. It is a spring migrant, returning 

 in great numbers in March. The first we obtained was on the 

 16th. On all the hills and cultivated plains, north and south, 

 it was then found very plentifully, scattered everywhere like the 

 Lark. There seems to be a curious change of plumage after its 

 migration. The specimens we shot at first were all russet-colour 

 like the Stapazine ; but this rapidly became silvery-white and of 

 a lustre unrivalled in any other species. The white appeared 



