Birds from Tripoli. 649 
into account the extent of practically unexplored country 
traversed. It is true that, knowing the desert character of 
the region, I was, more or less, prepared to find its Ornis 
by no means varied or rich in species, but I hardly ex- 
pected to find it so poor as it apparently is, the dearth of 
birds in some of the districts visited being so great that, 
according to Mr. Dodson, days often elapsed without a single 
addition being made to the collection. The absence of new 
species, or even subspecies, is also rather surprising — in fact, 
with but two exceptions, the species met with by Mr. Dodson 
in Tripoli are all to be found in Tunisia and Algeria. 
Generally speaking, I may here observe that the Ornis of 
Tripoli ten^ds more to that of Tunisia and Algeria than to 
that of Egypt. 
A small collection of Mammals was made by Mr. Dodson, 
and these, as shown by Mr, Oldfield Thomas''s paper on 
the subject (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1902, vol. ii. p. 2), compare 
favourably in the way of novelties with the birds collected, 
most of them in fact proving to be of new species or sub- 
species. 
In conclusion, I can but repeat what I wrote when refer- 
ring to the result of my Maroccan expedition (Ibis, 1898, 
p. 595), namely, that great credit is due to Mr. Dodson 
for the energy and perseverance displayed by him in over- 
coming the many difficulties which beset the European 
traveller in fanatical and little-explored countries, difficulties 
which, in the case of the recent expedition to the Tripoli 
hinterland, were sufficiently great to have deterred many a 
traveller from prosecuting his journey and bringing it to 
a successful issue. 
List of the Birds met ivith. 
1. SaXICOLA GENANTHE (LinU.) . 
3(^ and 3 ? , from Tarhuna, Wed-Dinner, Wed-Zumzum, 
Bonjem, and El-Hamman, between April 4th and 26th, 
2. Saxicola aurita (Temm.). 
1 (^ juv., from Wed-Dinner, April 7th. 
