Notes of a Journey through Syria ^c. 409 



and mountain-ranges form barriers far more definite than a 

 much greater expanse of water ; but it is remarkable that a 

 range like Lebanon, rarely reaching an altitude of 10,000 

 feet, should prove a sharp dividing-line which certain species 

 never cross, though the climatic and other conditions are 

 identical on both sides of the line. 



For instance, no Warbler is more conspicuous or abundant 

 in the whole of Palestine than Sylvia galactodes, the Rufous 

 Warbler. After the last week in April it is to be seen every- 

 where on upland and lowland alike, expanding, jerking, and 

 fanning its tail, with its conspicuous white bar, on the bare 

 fig-trees, among olives, on the top of any little shrub, or on 

 the pathway in front of the horseman, hopping fearlessly on 

 at his close approach. No specimen of its ally [S. familiaris) 

 have I ever noticed among the thousands I have seen, though 

 I was keenly on the look out for it. But when, after leaving 

 Beyrout, I followed the coast-line northwards, so soon as we 

 had passed the headlands of Lebanon and entered the rich 

 plain of Tripolis, not a solitary S. galactodes was ever seen, 

 while S. familiaris was as abundant everywhere as its con- 

 gener had been in the south. During the whole of my 

 journey through Syria, across the Euphrates, then up to the 

 Tamid and through Armenia and Cilicia, I never for an hour 

 lost sight of S. familiaris, most appropriately so-named. 

 Never once did I see S. galactodes. North and east we 

 have the one species ; south and west, as far as Algeria, Spain, 

 and Morocco we find the other. Yet S.familiai'is, in return- 

 ing from its winter-quarters, must pass through Palestine in 

 order to reach its own summer retreats. If the respective 

 ranges were as Mr. Seebohm puts them in his admirable 

 Brit. Mus. Catalogue, there would be less difficulty; but 

 he has omitted Palestine from the breeding-quarters of 

 S. galactodes, thoiigh he enumerates my specimens taken 

 while breeding, and he states that S. familiaris breeds in 

 Palestine. This would certainly simplify matters if it only 

 did so. But it does not. 



Another curious proximity of closely allied species I noted 

 in the case of the two Rock-Nuthatches. The larger form. 



