144 Bulletin of the British 



Section IV. Future Explorations suggested. 



In concluding my remarks, I will venture to offer some few 

 words of advice to the Members of the B. O. C, or other 

 ornithologists, who may be seeking for places to which to 

 make future excursions. 



Although there is not much left that is new in the 

 Palsearctic Region, there is one not far distant part of it of 

 which we as yet know little ornithologically. I allude to the 

 interior of Asiatic Turkey, particularly the Upper Euphrates, 

 where birds are stated by several recent travellers to be 

 abundant. The route to the Persian Gulf, and so up to 

 Bagdad by steamer, is now easy, and the start should be from 

 that quarter in the early spring, when the climate is good. 

 The Euphrates might then be followed to its sources, or so 

 far to the north as convenient, the return home being made 

 by the Mediterranean. An insight would thus be obtained 

 to the ornithology of Mesopotamia, of which as yet nothing, 

 I may say, is known. Many interesting links, no doubt, 

 would be found there between the birds of Persia and those 

 of Syria and Palestine. 



An ornithologist who wished to spend his winter in the 

 West Indies could not do better than visit the Island of 

 Margarita, off the coast of Venezuela, which, as a recent 

 traveller informs us, is a healthy place, easy of access, and 

 well provided with birds. It is very desirable to know 

 whether this island, like Cura9ao and its satellites {cf. 

 Hartert, Ibis, 1893, p. 289), possesses any traces of West- 

 Indian forms or is purely Venezuelan in character. In 

 either case it would be well worth a collector's visit. 



A more adventurous explorer, who did not fear Africa, 

 might be counselled to visit the Upper Senegal River and 

 the elevated land between that and the Upper Niger, over 

 which \\iG pax Gallica is now said to prevail. This country 

 is now of easy access by steamer and railway. Of the birds 

 of Senegal we know nothing since the days of Swainson, 

 excepting the collections made for the Maison Verreaux, 

 and a few scattered details ; for Dr. Rochebrune's work 

 {' Faune de la Senegambie ') is universally admitted to be 

 utterly untrustworthy. 



