334 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Oi-nithology of Palestine. 



peculiarities it approximates in some respects to the Indian P. 

 cinnamomeus, in others to the P. russatus of China, but is not 

 affined to any known Ethiopian Passer. Ammoperdix heyi, a 

 Partridge limited in its range to the region round the Dead Sea 

 and Arabia Petrsea, belongs to a subgenus of Caccahis, the only 

 other member of which, A. bonhami, is Indian. 



Of other peculiar species, Ixus xanthopygius, belonging to a 

 genus widely extended through both regions, yet is very close to 

 five or six Ethiopian species, and more decidedly separated from 

 any of its Indian congeners. Nectarinia osea, the only one of 

 this numerous genus which reaches so far north, represents a 

 family very numerous in both regions. Though not far removed 

 from N. asiatica, it approaches much more nearly to N. affinis 

 of Abyssinia. Crate?-opus chalybeius, yet more circumscribed in 

 its range to the lower part of the Jordan valley, above which it 

 never ascends, is one of a peculiarly well-marked genus, com- 

 prising about 18 species, all exclusively African, while Amydrus 

 tristrami (the last to be named), is one of a restricted group of 

 Starlings, of which the two other species are Abyssinian and 

 South- African. None of the Indian Sturnidce have any near 

 affinities with this genus. 



We are naturally led to speculate on the means by which this 

 narrow region became peopled. That it was by special creation 

 within this area, or that its inhabitants can have had an inde- 

 pendent origin on the spot, is negatived by the fact of the iden- 

 tity of many species of animal life, and of almost the entire flora, 

 with species now flourishing in the Ethiopian region. 



That it was peopled by migration in modern times, or that 

 wandering individuals in search of new homes, finding the 

 conditions adapted for their existence, settled and colonized, and, 

 in the case of birds, abandoned their migratory habits, is met by 

 the fact of the coexistence of peculiar forms with others now 

 found in regions remote from the colony. Besides which, there 

 are species which, making due allowance for all probable modes 

 of migration, could scarcely have been transported thither under 

 present conditions, since either their physical character or the 

 phenomena of their present distribution forbid such a supposi- 

 tion. We are thus led to the hypothesis that these species arrived 



