Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 283 



Tlie Conimon Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, L., was a much later 

 arrival than the other. We did not observe it before the 30th of 

 March. It is generally spread over the country, and, unlike its 

 ally, is particularly abundant in the Jordan valley, where it is 

 ceaselessly pursued with noisy clamours by the Crateropus cha- 

 hjbeius. The only egg of this Cuckoo we found was near 

 Jericho, in the nest of a Desert-Lark, Ammomanes isabellinus. 

 In my list in the Zoological 'Proceedings' for 1864, I gave 

 with great hesitation as new, under the name of Cuculus libano- 

 ticus, a bird shot by Mr. Cochrane in Lebanon in April. Fur- 

 ther consideration induces me to cancel this species, as I feel 

 now convinced that it is only a very remarkable specimen of the 

 Cuculus hepaticus, a supposed species, satisfactorily disposed of 

 by Temmiuck, which he says is far more common in the south- 

 east than elsewhere. He has also mentioned the fact of these 

 hepatic birds retaining the juvenile plumage to the second 

 year, as must have been the case in our bird obtained in April. 

 I possess hepatic specimens of the Indian Polyphasia tenuiros- 

 tris, which differ similarly from the typical form, and especially 

 in the reversal of the ordinary barring of the rectrices, black in- 

 stead of white. The rufous plumage and the partial retention 

 of the youthful mottled dress may be a symptom of disease or 

 weakness, which may also account for the unusually diminutive 

 size of the specimen. 



Of Woodpeckers Palestine boasts but a single species, Picus 

 syriacus, H. & Ehr., which I take to be identical with P. cruen- 

 tatus, Antin., as the latter author mentions but this single species. 

 I regret that I am not now able to refer to Malherbe's 

 splendid Monograph. Wherever we found the Jay, the Wood- 

 pecker was invariably in its company — in habits, flight, and 

 voice precisely like our Picus major, with which it is so closely 

 allied as not to be easily distinguishable at first sight. I have 

 been somewhat perplexed by Ehrenberg's diagnosis, in which he 

 says it is of the size of P. medius, and " pectoris fascia trans- 

 versa interrupta coccineo-rosea." I have examined more than 

 twenty specimens, and find them all nearly the size of P. major ; 

 and in only one can I see the faintest trace of the red band so 

 conspicuous in P. numidicus. Possibly Antiiioi'i, not recognizing 



