80 Rev. II. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 



thologists by the Due de Vallombrosa. I am not aware of 

 the existence in the Old World of any other very distinct spe- 

 cies restricted within so limited an area. It does not even 

 extend up the valley of the Jordan, but is strictly confined to 

 the larger oases round the Dead Sea. It is well known to 

 European residents as the " Hopping Thrush " of Jericho, and is 

 evidently the " Mocking-bird '^ of Lynch's ' Narrative.' It is 

 abundant in the rich oases of Ain Sultan and Ain Duk, at 

 the north-west of the Dead Sea, in the sultry corner at the 

 north-east, under the hills of Moab — the ancient plain of 

 Shittim, and at the south-east end, in the luxuriant tangles 

 of the Safieh. A few inhabit the shrubs of Engedi ; and 

 we found it once or twice at the VVady Zuweirah, at the 

 south-west of the Dead Sea. Nowhere else did it come 

 under our observation ; and thus we find a distinct and most 

 characteristic species limited to an area of forty miles by twelve, 

 and not occupying more than ten square miles in the whole of 

 that area, so far as our present knowledge extends. There is a 

 closely affined species, Craterojms fulvus, Bp., in the Algerian 

 Sahara, similarly restricted in its habitat to the dayats, or water- 

 less oases, and the thorny shrubs which flourish there. Though 

 a smaller bird, and very different in colour, yet in habits, nidi- 

 fication, and note it exactly resembles the C. chalyheius. This 

 latter is one of the most lively and amusing of birds, and in 

 many of its grotesque attitudes and motions reminds one of the 

 Magpie. Clad in a sombre suit of " dittos,'' he eschews the 

 gaudy plumage of the Smyrna Kingfisher and the Sun-bird 

 above him, but, as he expands and erects his long tail, seems to 

 maintain that it is elegance and grace of form, not brilliancy of 

 colour, which ought to be appreciated. The Cratero-podes are most 

 sociable and noisy birds, always in small bands, though not in large 

 flocks, hopping along the ground in long line, with jerking tail, 

 and then, one after another, running up a bush, where they 

 maintain a noisy conversation till the stranger's approach, when 

 they drop down in single file and run along the ground, to 

 repeat the same proceedings in the next tree. The nest is a 

 large clumsy structure, placed always in the very centre of a 

 thorn-tree, and requiring some little labour with the hatchet to 



