Birds from Tripoli. 649 



into account the extent of practically unexplored country 

 traversed. It is true tliat, knowing the desert cliaracter of 

 the region, I was, more or less, prepared to find its Ornis 

 by no means varied or rich in species, but I hardly ex- 

 pected to find it so poor as it apparently is, the dearth o£ 

 birds in some of the districts visited being so great that, 

 according to Mr. Dodson, days often elapsed without a single 

 addition being made to the collection. The absence of new 

 species, or even subspecies, is also rather surprising — in fact, 

 with but two exceptions, the species met with by Mr. Dodson 

 in Tripoli are all to be found in Tunisia and Algeria. 

 Generally speaking, I may here observe that the Ornis of 

 Tripoli tends more to that of Tunisia and Algeria than to 

 that of Egypt. 



A small collection of Mammals was made by Mr. Dodson, 

 and these, as shown by Mr. Old field Thomases paper on 

 the subject (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1902, vol. ii. p. 2), compare 

 favourably in the way of novelties with the birds collected, 

 most of them in fact proving to be of new species or sub- 

 species. 



In conclusion, I can but repeat what I wrote when refer- 

 ring to the result of my Maroccan expedition (Ibis, 1898, 

 p. 595), namely, that great credit is due to Mr. Dodson 

 for the energy and perseverance displayed by him in over- 

 coming the many difficulties which beset the European 

 traveller in fanatical and little-explored countries, difficulties 

 which, in the case of the recent expedition to the Tripoli 

 hinterland, were sufficiently great to have deterred many a 

 traveller from prosecuting his journey and bringing it to 

 a successful issue. 



List of the Birds met with. 



1. Saxicola CENANTHE (Linn.). 



3 $ and 3 ? , from Tarhuna, Wed-Dinner, Wed-Zumzum, 

 Bonjem, and El-Hamman, between April 4th and 26th. 



2. Saxicola aurita (Temm.). 



1 cJ juv., from Wed-Dinner, April 7th. 



