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



were none of A. arvensis. We were unable to find their summer 

 residence^ and did not revisit the south at the breeding-season. 

 Mr. Swinhoe's Chinese specimens are precisely similar; and I 

 possess a specimen also identical, which I shot more than twenty 

 years ago near Geneva. 



Of the Crested Larks, Galerita, Palestine affords four acknow- 

 ledged species. G. cristata (L.) is the commonest bird of the 

 country, in the open grounds of the central, northern, and coast- 

 regions, remaining all the year, and breeding as late as June, 

 though most of the nests were taken about the end of April. 

 G. abyssinica, Bp., is the form found in the south and the desert. 

 I include it without recognizing its specific value, as Bonaparte 

 simply gives for his diagnosis " Similis prsecedenti at distincta 

 colore deserti." In a large series I find it utterly impossible to 

 draw a line. The G. cristata of Galilee differs quite as much 

 from G. cristata of northern France as it does from G. ahyssinica, 

 being intermediate in coloration. The next species, G. isabellina, 

 Bp., I willingly admit, from thie differences in size, beak, and 

 crest. The specimens we obtained in the Ghor es Safieh, at the 

 south end of the Dead Sea, in no way differ from those of the 

 central Sahara and Nubia. To these are to be added my new 

 species, G. brachyura (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 435), at once distinguish- 

 able by its comparative length of wing and shortness of tail ; 

 it is in fact the representative species of the Woodlark among 

 the Galerit(P. It appears very local in its distribution, and we 

 only found two specimens in the central Jordan valley. 



Of the beautiful Horned Larks, Palestine affords the finest 

 species, Otocorys penicillata, Gould, strictly confined to the edge 

 of the snow-line on the very summits of Hermon and Lebanon, 

 where it consorts with Montifringilla nivalis and Pyrrhocorax 

 alpinus. It was a beautiful sight to watch these Larks scattered 

 all over the dome of Hermon, warbling their rich yet subdued 

 notes, with erected crest, on the desolate tops of the rocks which 

 strew the summit. In their action they are very unlike most 

 other Larks, and do not attempt to soar. Most of the nests 

 were hatched when we arrived at their breeding-place ; and we 

 obtained only one sitting of eggs, very like those of O. alpestris, 

 but larger, of a greenish-white, thickly covered with grey-green 



