3 io



Mr. T. H. Newman,



Canon Tristram supposed them to belong to the Egyptian

Swallow (H. savignii), or, as he calls them in the “ Ibis,” 1867,

p. 361, H. cahirica-, which is distinguished from the common

Chimney Swallow by its deep chestnut under-surface, but Sharpe

and Wyatt, in their Monograph of the Swallows, state their

belief that H. savignii is confined to Egypt. The darker tinted

non-migratory bird may well, however, constitute the Palestine

Swallow as a sub-species of H. rustica.


Eater on, at the end of March, the fine Red-rumped

Swallow (H. rufula ) becomes very abundant all over the country.

Tristram remarks that ‘‘it is a very beautiful bird on the wing,

showing its chestnut collar and wings to great advantage as-

it turns continually, flying much slower than the Common

Swallow,” from which it can at once be distinguished by its

white upper tail-coverts.


On March 18th, while walking round the Pools of Solomon

(which are three reservoirs situated some little distance beyond

Bethlehem and were constructed to supply Jerusalem with water,

and two of which are still in use and partly filled) a couple

of Martins darted out from under an overgrown bank and flew

rapidly backwards and forwards several times just over the

surface of the water ; from their small size and brown-and-white

plumage they seemed to be the Pale Rock-Martin (Cotile obsoleta)

which is supposed in Palestine to be confined to the Dead Sea

Basin, which is however only some ten miles distant from this

spot, but they may have been the better known and larger Rock-

Martin (C. rupestris) of Southern Europe, which is widely dis¬

tributed in all the glens of Palestine throughout the year ; our

Sand Martin (C. riparia ) does not make its appearance in the

Holy Laud until the end of March.


Vultures, both Griffon (Gyps Julviis) and Egyptian (Neo¬

phron percnopterus') are very common in Palestine, though I did

not find the former quite such a conspicuous object as Canon

Tristram did 40 years ago ; the Neophron was mostly in the brown

immature phase, but I saw some that were adult; quite a flock

of them together with a few of the nobler Griffons were always

to be seen near the slaughter house outside the walls of

Jerusalem. I confess that I have a weak spot for Vultures in



