366 Rev. H. B, Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



ground being generally olive, and the spots always arranged 

 more or less in a zone near the broad end. They can scarcely 

 be mistaken for those of any other bird. The Masked Shrike is 

 confined to the upper and wooded portions of the country. 



In commencing this series of papers with an account of the 

 peculiar denizens of the basin of the Dead Sea, I omitted one of 

 the most remarkable of the whole, the Grackle of the glens, 

 Amydrus iristi'ami, Sclater, well known to travellers as the 

 Blackbird of Marsaba, where many pairs are retained in a state 

 of semidomestication by the monks. Though so circumscribed 

 in its habitat, it is a bird of great power of wing, closely resem- 

 bling the Starling in its flight, and extremely wary and wild. 

 But in its power of voice it is unsurpassed by any bird I ever 

 heard, and, from descriptions, seems to rival that of the Bell-bird, 

 has no varied notes, but a rich musical roll of two or three notes 

 of amazing power and sweetness, which makes the cliffs ring 

 again with its music. It lives in the most desolate ravines, in 

 small bands of from four or five to a dozen, feeding at dawn and 

 sunset. We frequently saw birds passing and repassing from 

 their nests, which were in inaccessible chinks many hundred 

 feet up the cliffs, and hopeless of access. At length, in the 

 gorge of the Kedron, one of our Arabs found a nest accessible, 

 but the cleft was so narrow, and the nest so many feet in, that 

 the discovery was useless. I afterwards found a nest in a softer 

 and shallower hole, near AinFeshkhah; but the brood was fledged, 

 leaving only the fragments of some pale blue eggs, like those of 

 the Indian Grackles. The glossy black of the plumage of the male 

 is resplendent in the sunlight, while the russet wings shine like 

 burnished copper. The female, though similar in markings, is 

 without this metallic lustre. This bird is peculiarly interesting 

 as belonging to a distinctly Ethiopian type, but is quite a peculiar 

 species ; and, unlike the other peculiar species of the district, 

 there are no geographical links to be traced in Egypt or else- 

 where to unite it with its South-African relations. We have, 

 however, no lists of the birds of Petra or of Sinai, by which we 

 might trace its southward range. It has been admirably figured 

 by Mr. Gould in his ' Birds of Asia.' 



The Starling is only a winter migrant, visiting the Plain of 



