104 
TALLAS’S LOCUSTELLE. 
illustration of tlio adaj)tation of sj^ecies to climate and 
country, and liencc a confirmation of tlie doctrine of 
special creation, and permanence and immutability of 
species — a great truth Avhich has lately been assailed in 
a work which contains more sophistry and unsound 
deduction than any book that has ever been printed. 
Of the species of Sylciadee omitted in the present 
work, I will make one or two remarks: — 
1. Sylvia lanceolata, of Temminck. — This was said to 
have been discovered in the neighbourhood of Mayence. 
This however has been denied by Bruch, who gives the 
South of Russia as the locality of the only two specimens 
said to have been taken in Europe. Brehm considers Tem- 
minck’s specimens were those of locustella; Miihle that 
there is no sure foundation for the identity of the species. 
Malherbe considers it has been prematurely admitted 
into the European list. Degland and Schlegel recognise 
a specimen killed at Genes, by the Marquis Durazzo, 
as evidence of its claim. On the whole I have thought 
it better to omit this bird. 
2. S. fainiliaris, Menetries. — Considered by Naumann 
as identical with S. galactodes, which opinion is denied 
by Schlegel. Count Miihle, who had many opportunities 
for examining this so-called species in Greece, says that 
they are undoubtedly different in the colouring of the 
upper part of the body. Temminck and Keyserling and 
Blasius think them identical. Degland, in a note to 
S. galactodes, merely draws attention to Schlegel’s state- 
ment. 
The Rev. H. B. Tristram, who has had many oppor- 
tunities of observing this bird, both in Western Africa 
and in the Levant, considers the species identical, and 
states that he has found greater difference in the 
colouring of the back part of the body, between in- 
