516 Mr. II . F. Witherby— Ornithological 



The birds of Persia were dealt with in a very thorough 

 and careful manner by Dr. W. T. Blanford in the second 

 volume of 'Eastern Persia' (1876). The total number of 

 species enumerated by Dr. Blanford was 384. Of these some 

 16 were either doubtfully distinct or of very uncertain 

 occurrence in Persia. In ' The Ibis ' for 1886 and 1891, Dr. 

 !3harpe described collections made by Mr. W. D. Cumtning 

 at Fao, at the head of the Persian Gulf, which, although not 

 actually in Persian territory, may be reckoned such so far 

 as the birds go. In the same Journal for 1886 (p. 498) 

 Dr. Sharpe also described a collection made by Mr. A. J. V. 

 Palmer at Bushire. These collections resulted in the addition 

 of some 20 species to the avifauna of Persia, Of the total 

 obtained from these sources I make 158 species, and am 

 able to add only the following to the list of Persian 

 birds, viz. : — Lullula arborea, Emberiza schoeniclus, Accentor 

 jerdoni, Dendrocopus minor, and Syrnium aluco. The 

 avifauna of Persia may thus be reckoned roughly at 400 

 species. This estimate, however, does not take into account 

 the work of Mr. Zarudny, who has lately made extensive 

 collections in Eastern Persia, but whose results have been 

 communicated in Russian, a language with which I am not 

 familiar. 



Dr. Blanford divided Persia into five zoological regions, 

 making a distinct region for " the wooded slopes of the 

 Zagros, including the oak-forest near Shiraz/'' In this, so 

 far as my observations go, I think that he was perfectly 

 correct, for the avifauna of this region seems distinct from that 

 of the Caspian provinces; but how much further north than 

 I travelled this peculiar avifauna extends I am unable to 

 say. As already explained, the characteristic birds of these 

 oak-woods are Palsearctic species, while those of the plains 

 near the coast are a strange mixture of Palajarctic and 

 Indian with one or two North-east African forms. It is 

 also worthy of remark that at the highest altitude we reached, 

 Palsearctic, Indian, and African birds were seen side by side 

 (viz. Tardus merula, Accentor jerdoni, Erithacus gutturalis). 



There are, I suppose, very few distinct species of Palsearctic 

 birds yet to be described, but the work of distinguishing the 



