418 Ornithological Notes of a Journey through Syria ^c. 



arc few mentioned by him wliich I did not see. I have seldom 

 come aeross a rieher piece of colleeting-ground than the 

 wooded mountain-track between Beshni and Nadjar. In places 

 where we followed the course of a little rocky stream in a 

 winding woody dell, the variety of bird-life was bewildering. 

 Here, and here alone, I obtained Einberiza cinerea, which 

 must be a most local bird. I found it feeding in small com- 

 panies, probably broods, in little patches of marshy grass, 

 and then concealing itself in the thick scrub. Here, too, 

 were the large and small forms of Rock-Nuthatch together. 

 The charming Robin-Chat ( Cossypha gutturalis) had not ceased 

 to sing, and was most abundant, but only where trees and rocks 

 intermingled. The cedars were everywhere tenanted with little 

 bands of Parus luguhris, and Picus medius occasionally showed 

 himself. Both Magpie and Jay could be seen and heard, the 

 latter especially numerous. I cannot conceive a field better 

 likely than this to reward an oologist earlier in the season. 

 Every Warbler, Redstart, and Bunting of Eastern Europe 

 seemed to abound ; and I should have been well content, had 

 time permitted, to have stayed some days on these mountain- 

 sides. We were about 7000 feet above the sea-level. 



I must not conclude without alluding to one discovery, 

 which I have already brought before the Zoological Society*, 

 viz. the breeding- colonies of Plot us levaillanti and Phalacro- 

 corax pygmceus in the Lake of Antioch, in Northern Syria, 

 The lake, which is many miles in extent, is very shallow, 

 swarming with eels, which appear to form the staple of the diet 

 of the inhabitants of Antioch. On the northern , side of the 

 lake are thousands of small islets, with only a few feet of 

 water between them, so that one can wade easily from one 

 to the other. Here the Snake-bird, Little Cormorant, and 

 Common Tern {Sterna hirundo) have their common breeding- 

 ground. The islets are covered with very coarse grass, not 

 reeds, and a sort of low marsh-myrtle. For its nest the 

 Plotus merely seems to tread down a tuft of coarse grass or 

 rushes, or to settle down the centre of a little bush, much 

 after the fashion of a Coot, but not so neatly. Wherever 

 * Vf. V. Z. S. 1881, p. 820. 



