Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 323 



pluvialis) and the Lapwing {Vanellus cristatus) are found in the 

 plains and cultivated lands by thousands, but of course only as 

 winter visitants. 



The southern deserts are the resort in winter of another 

 group of species — our common Dotterel [Charadrius morinelliLs) , 

 C. leschenaulti, and C. pyrrhothorax. I accept Mr. Blyth's 

 rectification (Ibis, 1867, pp. 163, 164) of my synonymy in a 

 former paper (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 450) for both these last species. 

 No description can give any idea of the continuous flocks 

 which overspread the whole of the southern wilderness during 

 three days' ride from the Arabah to Beersheba. This is not 

 strictly desert, but is the 'Miill-country'' or pasture-land of the 

 Old Testament. Hour after hour the birds ran almost among 

 our horses' feet, and we shot as many as we required for the 

 day's provision within half an hour. There were about ten of 

 the Common Dotterel for one of the other species; but all 

 seemed mingled indiscriminately. With them were all the 

 Desert-Larks, rising sometimes in clouds, and here and there a 

 Sea-Gull, strangely out of place in such a landscape. But the 

 myriads of Helices, clustering on all the bushes and on every 

 straw, till the whole looked like a sheet of white blossom, no 

 doubt provided sustenance for all. These shells were of more 

 than a dozen species, but all white. 



To my former list (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 450), I must now add 

 the true Charadrius asiaticus of Pallas, of which I shot a speci- 

 men on the shore near Acre in winter, where C. pyrrhothorax 

 was pretty common, and especially near the Kishon, generally 

 in company with larger flocks of the universal jEgialitis can- 

 tianus. The latter breeds in several places in Palestine. jE. 

 minor is much less common ; but we obtained it several times on 

 the Kishon, and doubtless it is found on other gravelly spots 

 throughout the country. I think I saw" it more than once on 

 the shores of the Lake of Galilee, running with the Kentish 

 Plovers. There, too, in spring I shot, out of a small flock, a 

 specimen of jE. hiaticula, which wc also found in winter on the 

 coast. It breeds on the Upper Jordan, near Ilcrmon, but is 

 the scarcest of its group in winter. 



The most interesting of the Plover tribe was the Spurwing 



