322 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithulog]/ of Palestine. 



within shotj except when without a gun. As O. macqueeni and 

 O. houhara are now, I believe, admitted to be synonymous, I 

 need not be troubled with the identification of a bird so familiar 

 to me in North Africa. The favourite food of the Houbara 

 appeared to be the desert- snails so abundant on the scrubby 

 vegetation of the plain. The Little Bustard {Otis tetrax) is 

 known to be a vernal visitant in a very different part of the 

 country, the maritime plains ; but we did not meet with it ; in 

 fact we did not work that district at the proper season. Our 

 head servant, a good shot and keen sportsman (no ordinary 

 accomplishment in a Greek), knew the bird well, and assured 

 me he had often killed it. 



Very home-like to the East-Anglian members of our party 

 was the cry of Qi^dicnemus crepitans, heard night after night 

 close to our tents near Jericho, on the same plains that rear 

 the Houbara. We obtained many, as well as several eggs, and 

 found the birds to be of the full size of Enghsh specimens, 

 unlike the Indian, which, so far as I have examined them, are 

 invariably so much smaller as to excite my suspicion that Dr. 

 Salvador! was right in distinguishing them specifically as OE. 

 indicus, or that they are at least a distinct race. 1 also met 

 with CE. a'epitans on the sand-dunes near Beersheba. 



The other grallatorial birds call for little remark, as, though 

 very numerous both in species and individuals, I have little to 

 note that is not trite and familiar. Cursurius gallicus we met 

 with occasionally on the coast, where Mr. Cochrane shot the 

 finest specimen I ever saw. Pluvianus agijptius, I fancy, is only 

 a straggler from the Nile ; for though Mr. Herschell possessed 

 one he shot in the Jordan valley"^, this is the only recorded in- 

 stance of its occurrence. The Pratincole {Glareola pratincola) 

 disappears in winter, but returns in great numbers to all the 

 marshy plains in spring, when we found them on their breeding- 

 grounds, where they can be shot in any numbers, as they keep 

 hovering over the intruders, undismayed by repeated discharges 

 of the gun. As in Africa, they lay their eggs in a footprint in 

 the barest spots. Glareola nordmanni did not occur to us. The 

 Grey and Golden Plovers [Squatarola helvetica and Charadrius 

 * Ibis, 18(i2, p. 279. 



