CN 
2 
larger oases round the Dead Sea, and 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 Wady 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.” Von Heuglin says (Orn. N.O.- 
Afr. p. 389) that it inhabits the bushes and trees, in pairs and small families, in Arabia Petrea 
and Hedjaz, especially on the borders of the Gulf of Akabah, and he believes that he saw it at 
Sauakin. In the collection made by Hemprich and Ehrenberg, now at Berlin, I found two 
specimens, both from Arabia. It is said to occur in Nubia; but I think it probable that 
A. acacie may have been mistaken for the present species. 
Except what has been published by Canon Tristram, there is scarcely any thing on record 
respecting the habits of the present species. This gentleman writes (/. ¢.) that the Bush- 
Babblers are “ most sociable and noisy birds, always in small bands, though not in large flocks, 
hopping along the ground in a 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 centre of a thorn-tree, and 
requiring some little labour with the hatchet to clear a way to it. It is composed entirely of 
strips of bark loosely woven together, and without any other lining. One in my collection 
looks much like a very large nest of Savi’s Warbler, from this peculiarity of the employment of 
but a single material. The eggs are four to six in number, dark rich green, smaller than those 
of the common Thrush, and a little larger than the eggs of Crateropus fulvus. The parent birds 
continue their attention to the young for some time after they leave the nest; and I have been 
amused in watching the manner in which the old bird will remain at the top of a bush, scolding 
and screaming at the intruder till all her brood have dropped down one after the other, and are 
running to the next tree, when she suddenly runs down and follows them in silence, to repeat 
the same manceuvre so long as she is followed. ‘Their food consists principally, if not entirely, 
of the berries of the zizyphus or jujube, which are to be found at all seasons of the year.” 
I possess eggs of the present species received from Canon Tristram, which agree with his 
description above given, but have never had an opportunity of examining a nest of this bird. 
The specimen figured, on the same Plate with Argya fulva, is the male above described, and 
was obtained in Palestine by Canon Tristram. 
In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens :— 
