100 



10 



present species at Erzeroom on the 28th of March, from which day up to the 7th of April they 

 observed it in burying-grounds. It was reported to them to be common in winter both at 

 Tortoom and Trebizond. In Palestine, Canon Tristram states that he found the present species 

 " scattered in every part of the country throughout the year, remaining to breed even in the 

 sultry Ghor. It was nowhere abundant, and was one of the most retiring and shy of the inha- 

 bitants of the thickets." He has lent us his specimens from Palestine ; and he rightly states 

 that they are exactly the same as the European bird. Hemprich and Ehrenberg named a 

 Blackbird from Syria Tardus merula, var. syriaca, stating that it differed from the ordinary 

 species in having a stouter bill and feet, and also a longer tail. Only one specimen was 

 collected, in which the bill was white and the fourth quill the longest. Canon Tristram's 

 specimens measure as follows : — 



Total length. CiUnien. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 



1. J, JebelAjlun, Bashan, March 14, 1864. . .10-5 1-1 495 4-6 1-35. 



2. 2, Jericho, January, 2, 18G4 10-3 1-05 48 44 13. 



It will require a much larger series to prove whether the slight differences between the 

 measurement of these Palestine birds and the English examples given above will hold good. 

 We should hardly think that the Blackbird from these parts can be different: and too much 

 reliance cannot be placed upon the measurements; for in the present species there is a great 

 variation in size, even in specimens from the same locality. Again, as regards the Hook-winged 

 Blackbird of Syria (Turdus dactylopterus), we cannot believe that this is any thing else than an 

 individual variation ; for it must be remembered that, although many people have visited Palestine 

 and Syria, no one has ever succeeded in getting a second specimen of the bird, and Bonaparte's 

 type still remains unique in the Paris Museum. Through the kindness of our friend M. Jules 

 Verreaux we have received a drawing bj .M. Iluet of the wing of this bird, thus enabling us to 

 present our readers with a woodcut of the "hook." 



Any one who has studied Thrushes will, we think, agree with us in considering this hook 

 only an abnormal development of the knob which is always to be found on the carpal bend of 

 tin; wing in these birds; and we must set it down as such until confirmatory evidence of the 

 existence in Syria of a distinct species has been received. An instance occurs to our memory of 

 an African Thrush which has three of these knobs ; and the following remarks by Mr. Swinhoe 

 also bear upon the question. In describing his beautiful new Turdus alhiceps from Formosa, he 

 observes : — " On the carpal edge of the wing a tubercle or wart is rather conspicuous. It occurs, 



