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



new Goatsucker (Plate II.), described by me last year (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. ISej', p. 170), under the name Caprimulgus tamaricis*,h'om 

 our having found it only among the tamarisk-trees which occa- 

 sionally fringe the edges of the Dead Sea, The first specimen we 

 obtained was a male bird, on the 13th January, just after sunset, 

 on our arrival at our camping-ground at Ain Feshkhah, near the 

 north-west end of the Dead Sea. This is a strange and isolated 

 spot, an oasis of cane-brakes fringed by tamarisk-bushes, in a 

 little flat fed by an abundant hot spring, and shut in on three 

 sides by savage and precipitous chflfs many hundred feet high, 

 which are the homes of the " coney ^^ of Scripture {Hyrax syria- 

 cus) and of Amydrus tristrami. We watched in vain for another ; 

 but at Engedi we saw the species again ; and when camped a 

 fortnight later at Jebel Usdum, at the south end of the Sea, we 

 saw several of these birds, and ]\Ir. Bartlett succeeded in shoot- 

 ing one in the gloaming, which he found on the following morn- 

 ing hanging in a bush. Away from the margin of the Dead 

 Sea we never saw it, not even in the sheltered spots which 

 occasionally dot the upper parts of the Jordan valley. I recog- 

 nize it as the same species which I saw mounted in a collection 

 made by the son of the late Mr. R. Herschcll, and which I 

 mentioned in a former volume of this Journal (Ibis, 1862, p. 278) 

 as a small species shot in the valley of the Jordan. 



In form and size it much resembles C. asiaticus, but it is a trifle 

 larger in all its dimensions, which more closely resemble those 

 of C. rufigena, Smith, found in Southern and Western Africa. 

 It differs, however, from this in coloration, and more especially in 

 the shorter wings and longer tail. The colouring differs from 

 that of every other Nightjar with which I am acquainted, but most 



* As a matter of convenience to my readers, I append at full length 

 the description of the species as given in the ' Proceedings of the Zoolo- 

 gical Society ' above cited. 



" Caprimulgus tamabicis. 

 " Cinerascenti-isabellinus, nigro minute vermiculatus : fascia coUari pos- 

 tica et maculis humeralibus' rufescenti-isabellinis : mento et fascia 

 gulari albis : alanmi primariis nigris, vitta lata alba ; secundariis 

 rufis, nigro transfasciatis : alls intus et tectiicibus subalaribus pallide 

 rufis : caudse rectricibus duabus utrinque externis pallide rufis, nigro 

 frequenter et irregulariter transfasciatis, apicibus late albis j ceteris 

 dorso concoloribus. 

 " Long, tota 9-0, alas 5-6, caudae 4-2." 



