100 



Hemprich and Ehrenberg record it from Egypt; Von Heuglin says that it is a resident in 

 Arabia ; and the Rev. F. W. Holland obtained it at Wady-Feiran on the Sinaitic peninsula. 



Canon Tristram (Ibis, 1867, p. 76) met with it in the desolate wadys opening on the west 

 side of the Dead Sea, where it flitted restlessly from one little desert shrub to the other. He 

 found one or two in each wady, but never two together, and it inhabited ravines where the 

 Rock-Chats were the only other birds that could find sustenance. He remarks that it was 

 extremely shy and wary. It is found in suitable localities throughout Transcaspia, and has been 

 met with, Dr. Severtzoff says, on the western shores of the Caspian. According to Mr. Zarudny 

 (Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 783) it is very common on the sands which surround the Merv oasis 

 and on the plain of the central Murghab. On the 19th June he observed a family of this 

 species amongst the bushes growing on the ruins of Bayram-Ali-Khan-Kala. This bird is, he 

 adds, frequently met with on the plains of Tedgend, but he did not observe it (in 1886) on the 

 low plains in the oasis of Ahal-Teke nor in the neighbouring portion of the Kara-Koum desert. 

 Messrs. Radde and Walter, who also met with it in Transcaspia, write (Vog. Transcasp. p. 48) as 

 follows : — " Inasmuch as we obtained the first specimens between the 15th and 18th February, at 

 Krasnovodsk, when it was still in the depth of winter, we may take it for granted that some at 

 least remain over the winter. On passage to Turkestan this otherwise mountain-haunting bird 

 was seen in the said district, as, for instance, numerously on the 27th and 28th March, 1587, at 

 Utschadshi. In 1886 we observed a few on the 8th March in the sand at Bal-kuju, and a 

 specimen shot on the coast of Tschickischljar by Mr. Jasevitch, on the 22nd May, was probably 

 a late straggler on migration. It breeds numerously in all the mountains both in the coast- 

 chain of the Kuba-dagh and in the Balchan, and throughout the Kopet-dagh. On the 25th April 

 we saw fledged young in the great Balchan." It inhabits Persia, but is, Mr. Blanford writes 

 (E. Pers. ii. p. 209), " very locally distributed in Southern Persia and Baluchistan, though it 

 was far from scarce where it occurred. I usually met with it amongst low scattered bushes and 

 shrubs, on plains and hill-sides. Amongst the bushes it was very active, hunting amongst the 

 twigs and frequently flying from bush to bush with the feeble, jerking uncertain flight of other 

 Drymcecce, or hopping about on the ground at the roots of the bushes. It was familiar, trying 

 to hide in the bushes when pursued, and altogether its habits reminded me much of those of 

 I), gracilis, Riipp." Sir Oliver St. John (Ibis, 1889, p. 165) obtained it at Kandahar, Afghan- 

 istan, and Dr. Duke in the highlands south of Kelat, and also, according to Col. Swinhoe (Ibis, 

 1882, p. 108), at Iskulko, in Northern Baluchistan. In British India it is, Mr. Oates states 

 (Faun. Brit. Ind., Birds, i. p. 433), " a resident in the bare stony hills which run, in various 

 broken ranges, from the Khyber Pass to the sea, on the west of the Indus river." 



In its habits the present species is said to resemble the Drymcecce, and more especially 

 Drymosca gracilis. 



Mr. Zarudny, who had ample opportunities of observing it in Transcaspia, says (I. c.) that he 

 found it " very common in the stony mountains covered with low bushes on the precipices and 

 amongst the clefts and cavities. It is but seldom seen in the zone of the large junipers, and 

 still rarer in the stony plains of the mountains, and does not even descend into the plain of the 

 Ahal-Teke, though it is to be met with in the lower portions of the Kopet-dagh. Very restless 

 in its habits it is seldom quiet, and glides swiftly through the bushes, skipping from stone to 



