Notes of a Journey through Syria S^c. 407 



Flycatcher must be somewhat fitful and uncertain in its 

 migrations ; and this is a point on which the observations of 

 future travellers may throw some light. 



I was much interested by coming across a large flock of 

 Great Spotted Cuckoo on migration on 22nd April. Not for the 

 first time, for I see I noted a large flock roosting one night 

 close to my camp in the Jordan valley the 5tli April, 1872. Un- 

 like Cuculus canorus, Oxyloj)hus ylandarius migrates sociably in 

 large bands. They travelled very leisurely, and while scattered 

 along the whole length of the valley which they were cross- 

 ing, kept up ceaseless conversation, some few jerking their 

 tails on the edge of the cliffs, while the greater number pur- 

 sued their course among the bushes, searching for food as they 

 descended our side of the valley and climbed the opposite face. 

 Their behaviour, but for their noisy tongues, was very like 

 that of a well-ordered flock of Rooks, with their sentries on 

 their feeding-ground. When they had reached the north 

 ridge of the valley, they seemed to take stock of the situa- 

 tion, and very soon rose in the air, perhaps stimulated by our 

 ineffective shots, and pursued their course till out of sight. 



Another bird I was able to notice on its breeding-haunts 

 more closely than I had hitherto done. This was my Calan- 

 drella hermonensis, which several critics have pronounced to 

 be only a large form of C. brachydactyla. Apart from the 

 fact that the haunts of the latter are invariably the plains, 

 while the other is found only on the rocky heights, the flight 

 is quite different, and it would be impossible for any one 

 who had been once introduced to both species in their own 

 homes to confuse them. C hermonensis has a habit of perch- 

 ing on the edge of a rock or on the top of a small boulder, 

 and uttering an oft-repeated, rather plaintive, but very clear 

 note, utterly unlike that of the Short-toed Lark, and some- 

 thing like that of an exceptionally musical Yellowammer. It 

 also is a solitary, and not a gregarious bird, and when it rises, 

 though it has much of the soaring character of the Sky-Lark, 

 it does not attempt a sustained song. 



The only additions I have to make to my former Palestine 

 lists are Saxicola morio, Hempr. & Ehr. {S. leucomela, Pall.), 



