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



found in the Palsearctic region the whole are here represented, 

 and by no less than fifteen species. The conspicuous features 

 of the Palestinian ornis are beyond doubt its Alaudince and 

 SaxicolincB. In the southern wilderness in winter the flocks of 

 Larks were in amazing numbers, consisting not of one or two 

 but of eight species. We shot them by scores, and lived on 

 them for days. The most abundant of all was perhaps the large 

 Calandra Lark, Melanocorypha calandi-a (L.), a partial migrant, 

 and wintering in the desert and southern wilderness, but breed- 

 ing in the corn-plains and in the north, especially under Hermon. 

 It appears that there are two races of this bird, — one larger, 

 and darker in plumage, which breeds in the corn-plains, identi- 

 cal with the Calandra of Algeria ; the other smaller and more 

 rufous, sometimes almost russet, which remains all winter near 

 Damascus, and breeds in the uplands. My new species, Calan- 

 drella hermonensis (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864-, p. 434), forms a very 

 pretty link from the subgenus Melanocorypha to Calandrella. 

 Undoubtedly belonging to the latter, and only half the size of 

 the former, in the interrupted black collar it much resembles 

 the Calandra. 



Each of the three species of Calandrella is distinct in its 

 habitat. The elegant little C. deserti, Tristr., the smallest of 

 the group, is a strictly desert-bird, frequenting regions similar 

 to those where it was discovered in the Sahara, in which it 

 is a permanent resident, and less gregarious than most of its 

 congeners. C. hrachydactijla, Kaup, is, on the contrary, a sum- 

 mer migrant, revisiting the central country late in spring and 

 not occurring in the plains or desert in the winter. C. hermo- 

 nensis appears to be confined to the higher mountain-zone of 

 the north, and to be there a permanent resident. It breeds 

 three weeks earlier than C. brachydactyla, from which it is distin- 

 guished by its larger size, longer and more slender bill, bright 

 rufous coloration, and by the distinctness of the blackish collar. 

 There is also a much smaller extent of white on the outer tail- 

 feathers. 



The next group, Ammomanes, is an exclusively desert form, 

 and very closely allied to the typical Alauda. While in the 

 Sahara it is represented by four species, we found but two 



