64 C'Ol. R. Mfinertzhagen on Birds from [This, 



COLUMBA LIVIA. 



Coliiin"ba livia palsestinse Zedl. 



Zedlitz (J.f.O. 1912, p. 339) described this race from a 

 specimen shot in the Wadi Fara, in the Jordan Valley a few 

 miles north of Jericho, giving as its characteristics a darker 

 coloration than scJnmperi, especially on the upper parts. 

 Wing 215 to 218 mm. He does not mention the most 

 important poinf, the colour of the lower back, but through 

 the kindness of Dr. Stresemann^ I understand that it is the 

 same colour as the mantle. 



Hartert (Vog. pal. Fauna) says of palcestince that the 

 upper parts are as in schimperi, the under parts as in true 

 Uvia, therefore darker than sclnm2)eri. Rump usually some- 

 what greyish. Wing 203-22G. Variable ! And further 

 (Nov. Zool. 1917, p. 462) he considers birds from south- 

 west Arabia to be identical with palcestinff. I hope to show 

 that this is incorrect. 



Sclater refers these same birds from south-west Arabia to 

 intermedia from India, This I also believe to be incorrect. 



Sclater & Praed (Ibis, 1920, p. 827) draw attention to the 

 fact that birds from the Red Sea Province of the Sudan are 

 not unlike those from southern Arabia, and consider the 

 Sudanese birds nearest schimperi, the south Arabian birds 

 nearest intermedia, whilst Palestine l)irds are nearest to true 

 C I. lixna. 



I have been fortunate in examining the whole series at 

 Tring- and the British Museum, together with 19 birds which 

 I recently collected in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, (Jrcte, and 

 on the coast of the western desert of Egypt. I also examined 

 a large series of Egyptian and Sudanese specimens in the 

 Giza Zoological Gardens Museum at Cairo. 



It is a most unfortunate thing that the type of this race 

 came from north of Jericho, for the locality is on the border- 

 line between paht'stina' and gaddi. Birds which agree with 

 the type of palccstina' occur in the southern extremity of the 

 Jordan Valley, Dead Sea, Sinai, throughout Arabia south to 

 Muscat and Aden, and constitute a small pale desert race 

 with a grey rump (rarely whitish). 



