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



the description, redescribed his bird anew as P. cruentatus. I 

 can scarcely beheve that Ehrenberg and Antinori, each finding 

 only a single species, should have met with one distinct from 

 the bird which we obtained in all the olive-groves, woodlands, 

 and forests of the country. The unfailing distinction between 

 the Palestine bird and P. major' is, that while the latter has the 

 nape of the neck black, with a narrow white stripe behind it, 

 the white in P. s^jriacus is continuous from the eye and ear- 

 coverts round the crimson occiput and to the nape of the neck 

 inclusive, and is only interrupted at the centre of the occiput by 

 the black plumage of the back; at the same time the black 

 interrupted collar below is much narrower than in the European 

 bird. The Woodpecker is a permanent resident, found alike in 

 the oliveyards near Hebron and in the pine-forests of Gilead, 

 but especially abundant about Carmel and the oak-glades of 

 Bashan. It never descends to the Ghor or Jordan depression. 

 The Wryneck, Jynx torquilla, L., is a scarce bird, so far as our 

 observation goes, and a migrant, returning from the south about 

 the middle of April. It is difficult to account for the absence 

 of any representative of P. minor, or of the genus Gecinus, so 

 abundantly represented from Britain to Japan. They may pos- 

 sibly linger in very small numbers, but have probably been ex- 

 terminated from the scarcity of timber. 



To turn now to the Passeres. 



Of Wrens we found but one, and that only in the north, 

 where it seemed very scarce. Troglodytes parvulus, Koch. It is 

 slightly lighter in plumage than my British specimens, as also 

 are my Algerian skins. 



The Tree-creeper, Certhia familiaris, L., which ought to exist, 

 did not occur to us ; but we frequently met with the beautiful 

 Wall-creeper, Tichodroma muraria (L.), a permanent inhabi- 

 tant of the rocky defiles in the northern and central parts. We 

 never saw it in the south, where probably the clifl"s are too 

 parched and dry to supply it with its insect food. I know few 

 ornithological sights more interesting than to watch this beau- 

 tiful little creature as it flits along the face of a long line of clifi^, 

 with a crab-like sidling motion, rapidly expanding and closing its 

 wings in a succession of jerks, and showing its brilliant crim- 



