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



[Hoploptei-us spinosus), which returns as most of its congeners 

 are leaving, and spares no pains, by voice and action, to make 

 its arrival known. We found it everywhere in pairs, by streams 

 or in marshy lands, where it was evidently breeding, though we 

 never lighted on a nest. Its habits as an Egyptian bird are too 

 well known to require particularizing here. 



Grus cinerea was the only species of Crane we observed, and 

 that only in winter. At Moladah, about thirty miles west of 

 the south end of the Dead Sea, we chanced to camp close to a 

 roosting-place of Cranes. Hard work and, I hope, a good con- 

 science made us sound sleepers; else the din of the Cranes 

 might have roused an Ephesian. Towards sunset these enor- 

 mous birds began to return homewards, flying in order, like 

 geese, with outstretched necks, keeping up a ceaseless trumpet- 

 ing ; but, unlike Rooks, they were not all early to bed ; for 

 fresh arrivals seemed to pour in for several hours, and the 

 trumpeting continued till morning, with only an occasional 

 lull. The howl of some wandering Jackal would rouse the 

 whole camp ; then, after a slight pause, the wail of an Hysena 

 evoked a deafening chorus ; and before daylight began an angry 

 discussion, perhaps on the next day's journey. Parties of some 

 hundreds departed for the south with the dawn; others re- 

 mained, probably to make up for their broken slumbers, till the 

 sun had risen for a couple of hours. The roosting-place was a 

 group of hillocks covering several acres, and was covered with 

 the mutings of the birds as thickly as the resort of any sea- 

 fowl. It had evidently been occupied for years. I have no 

 reason to think that the Crane ever breeds in Palestine. We 

 did not meet with the Demoiselle {Anthj-opoides virgo), though 

 it ought to occur, being common both east and west of this 

 latitude. 



Not even Lac Halloula, in Algeria, can rival the marshes of 

 Huleh (Merom) as a paradise for Herons — with this advantage, 

 that the breeding-places are wholly inaccessible to man. That 

 treacherous swamp, extending for seven miles, with its deadly 

 malaria, affords a secure haven, under its waving tufts of papy- 

 rus, for any number of heronries. Sometimes we heard the 

 booming of the Bittern [Botaurus stellaris). As we plunged 



