506 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



near mountains. The only specimen that occurred in 

 Palestine was killed at Baisan, in the valley of the Jordan. 



7. FALCO CENCHRIS. Lesser Kestrel. 



From Alexandria up to Assuan the Lesser Kestrel is not 

 only common, but one of the commonest birds, and may be 

 seen everywhere in the towns, among the ruins, in the rocky 

 mountains, and in the palm-groves. In Palestine it is on the 

 whole not so numerous as in North Africa, and is confined to 

 isolated localities that are adapted to it, such as the rocky 

 gorge of the monastery of Mar-Saba, near the Dead Sea, 

 where I found quite an enormous colony of them breeding. 



8. ASTUR NISUS. Sparrow-Hawk. 



Only once seen. It came flying up over the steppe of the 

 Jordan valley, and circled a few times above a deep gorge 

 covered with thick bushes, in which we were then hunting 

 wild boars. 



9. AQUILA NIPALENSIS. Steppe-Eagle. 



Never observed in Africa. In Palestine, on the contrary, 

 it is the commonest of the large noble eagles. In a narrow 

 mountain valley between Jaffa and Jerusalem I saw many of 

 them cruising about, and at a distance took them at first for 

 Imperial Eagles. Many were also observed between Jerusa- 

 lem and Bethlehem, and especially between Bethlehem and 

 Mar-Saba. All these eagles were flying in small and often in 

 large companies of as many as twenty together ; they seemed 

 to be on migration, or, to speak more correctly, on the search 

 after good localities for feeding on the great black lizards and 

 gigantic grasshoppers. According to my observations the 

 large insects and the reptiles which are everywhere so abun- 

 dant in Palestine form the sole food of all the eagles. In the 

 valley of the Jordan I saw the first paired couple of Steppe- 



