Letters, Extracts, Notices, fyc. 165 



it is very scarce wherever found ; but the remark on tins 

 statement is tl>at it is " quite common." I venture to suggest 

 that the bird which the doctor saw may have been the common 

 Fantail of the country (D. gracilis). 



With regard to the Sun-birds it is suggested that those 

 found at Jaffa may be of a distinct species from the Sun-bird 

 of the Jordan Valley. I certainly demur to this. I found 

 a Sim-bird identical with that of the Jordan Valley south 

 of Mt. Carmel. When I worked on birds in Palestine, more 

 than ten years ago, there was very little cultivation about 

 Jaffa ; it is now embosomed in a vast tract of orange-groves 

 and gardens. What could be more natural than that 

 emigrants from the south of Mt. Carmel should take up 

 their abode in a district so admirably suited to their habits ? 

 The extension of the range of Tristram's Serin [Serinus 

 cunonicus) from the highlands of Lebanon to the neighbour- 

 hood of Jerusalem is certainly interesting. 



Now on the African Buzzard (Buteo desertorum) I wrote 

 " this may probably be entered among the birds of Palestine, 

 though I have never obtained a specimen." On this 

 Dr. Merrill's comment is, " As Dr. Tristram says, it has 

 never been found in Palestine.''' This is scarcely fair 

 criticism. But I will not encroach upon your space by 

 further examples of what I may call rather carping remarks, 

 though under the guise of " additions." In making my list 

 I was careful to include nothing that I had not myself 

 obtained, or that had not been brought to me in the flesh. 

 In other cases I simply stated, when I had been told that the 

 bird was found, that it probably existed there. My explora- 

 tion was completed in one year, and, of course, I never 

 dreamed of claiming to have come across every bird that 

 visits the country. 



I may mention that Dr. Merrill, when in England, wrote to 

 me upon his supposed discovery of a "new Sun-bird." I 

 expressed my incredulity, and suggested that, as is well 

 known, there are great varieties of seasonal plumage in these 

 birds. Dr. Merrill offered to shew me the specimens, but 

 unfortunately found that they had been packed away for 

 transport to America. 



