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



300 spe cie in one small district of the Mediterranean basin, com- 

 prising 27 peculiar and 9 new species, affords ample encourage- 

 ment to our ornithologists to complete the investigation, and 

 to work out the avifauna of Asia Minor, Northern Syria, and the 

 Euphrates- valley, of which our knowledge is almost a blank. 



In the course of these papers it will be observed that I have 

 had to make several corrections in, and additions to the list pub- 

 lished by me shortly after my return (P. Z.S. 1864, pp. 426-456). 

 The principal corrections are the omission (Ibis, 1866, p. 283) 

 of Cuculus libanoticus, then described as a new species, but of 

 which I now feel very doubtful; the identification [torn. cit. 

 p. 291) of Motacilla lugubris, Temm., with M. vidua, Sund., the 

 substitution [torn. cit. pp. 291, 292) of Cinclus albicollis, Vieill., 

 for C. aquaticus, Bechst., var. ?, the con-ection {op. cit. 1867, 

 p. 79) of Cettia sericea, Bp., to the new species C. orientalis, 

 and {antea, p. 331) of Puffinus anglorum to P. barolii, Bonelli. 

 The additional species given are Sitta ccesia, Mey. [op. cit. 1866, 

 p. 285), Drijmoeca eremita, sp. nov. {op. cit. 1867, p. 7Q), Sylvia 

 bowmani, sp. nov. {torn. cit. p. 85), S. dorice, De Filippi {torn. cit. 

 p. 84), Charadrius leschenaulti, Lesson {antea, p. 323), and, per- 

 haps {op. cit. 1866, p. 286), a Melanocorypha , as yet unnamed 

 by me, but closely allied to M. calandra. 



As to the general conclusions deducible from a review of the 

 Palestine avifauna, I indulged in various speculations in the 

 first paper of this series. These I need not repeat ; but I would 

 call attention especially to the fine illustrations which Palestine 

 affords of the fact that as zones of elevation or mountains cor- 

 respond to parallels of latitude, the higher zones corresponding 

 to the higher latitudes, so here a zone of depression, the only 

 one of any importance known to us, produces similar pheno- 

 mena, and exhibits, in generic correspondences, specific repre- 

 sentations, and, in some cases, specific identities, the avifauna of 

 lower latitudes. The Ethiopian and Indian forms are almost 

 exclusively confined to the deep depression of the Dead-Sea basin, 

 which, with the exception of some winter migrants, affords very 

 few Palsearctic species. 



Of the 36 birds pertaining to the Ethiopian avifauna, 16 

 species have not been found in Palestine out of the Dead-Sea 



