402 Canon H. B. Tristram's Ornitholoyical 



splendid Spotted Shag, G. ptmctaltis, keeps entirely to the 

 sea-shores ; I observed it only in the fjord of the Thames, 

 and the White-vented Shag (G. leucogaster) I saw only in the 

 Bay of Islands. The Gulf of Hauraki, I may add, was 

 swarming with Sula serrata and the interesting little Pele- 

 canoides urinatrix. 



Hoping to be able to give, on another occasion, a more 

 complete account of my observations on New-Zealand birds, 

 I conclude by offering my best compliments and thanks to 

 all my ornithological friends in the colony through the pages 

 of ' The Ibis/ These I know they will get in due time, as 

 the ornithologists of New Zealand are all devoted readers of 

 ' The Ibis.' My next letter will, I trust, be again from the 

 tropics, either from the islands of Torres Strait, whither I 

 am now bound, or, perhaps, if I am able to carry out my 

 plans, from New Guinea itself ! 

 Between Sydney and Thursday Island, 

 October 1881. 



XXX. — Ornithological Notes of a Journey through Syria, 

 Mesopotamia, and Southern Armenia in 1881. By H. B. 

 Tristram, F.R.S. 

 My expedition of last year was, as regards ornithology, the 

 most barren I have yet made. My course lay, for the most 

 part, over ground which has been again and again explored by 

 naturalists. Palestine cannot now be expected to yield 

 novelties : Northern Syria has few natural features which can 

 differentiate its fauna from that of the Lebanon and Asia 

 Minor. Scanty, indeed, must be the gleanings which Mr. 

 Danford has left for any follower of his steps in Armenia ; 

 while the monotonous, treeless, and fertile plains of Meso- 

 potamia afford no cover for any fugitives across the Tigris 

 unnoticed by Mr. Blanford in Persia. 



A few days of January spent in Egypt could not add much 

 to our ornithological knowledge. One fact, however, forced 

 itself most painfully on my notice — the startling absence of 

 once familiar forms on the banks of the Nile. The Spoon- 

 bills, Avocets, and other Waders, of which I have, in days 



