INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. XXXI 



and is of interest from having no metallic colouring on its plumage. A small 

 lark on the plains has a peculiar plaintive note, but the song-bird of the island 

 is a new starling, its melody equalling that of a thrush. 



Mr Sclater and Dr Hartlaub,* writing about our collection of 36 species — 

 which it may be noted in passing was added to by seven species by the German 

 expedition, one of the species brought being a second one of the new genus 

 Rhynchostruthus — say : " The collection shows at once that, so far as one can 

 judge of it by its birds, Socotra, as might have been anticipated, belongs to the 

 same fauna as north-eastern Africa. The island has, however, been suffi- 

 ciently long separated from Cape Guard afui to allow of a certain number of 

 species becoming differentiated, unless indeed, as is not improbable, these 

 shall be hereafter found to exist also in Somali-land, the ornithology of which is 

 still very imperfectly known to us. Our impression is, that Rhynchostruthus 

 will yet be found on Cape Guardafui." 



The AmphisbaBnians and snakes of Socotra, though few in number, are of 

 considerable interest. Dr Gtinther writest — "We might have expected, from the 

 geographical position of Socotra, that the species would show a close affinity 

 to, if not identity with, those of the nearest portion of the mainland of Africa; 

 but, in fact, this affinity is overbalanced by that to the Arabian fauna, at least 

 so far as the few species enumerated here are concerned. The most singular 

 fact is, that three out of the four species seem to be peculiar to the island, two 

 being so much differentiated as to deserve generic distinction. 



1. The Amphisbsena belongs to a distinct genus, the nearest allies of which 

 inhabit eastern and western tropical Africa. 



2. The Coronelline snake, Ditypophis, belongs to a distinct genus, apparently 

 approaching the Circum-Mediterranean Tachymenis vivax. 



3. The Socotran species of the Circum-Mediterranean or central Asiatic 

 genus Zamenis is most nearly allied to the Arabian Z. elegantissimus. 



4. Finally, the viper of Socotra is identical with a species hitherto found in 

 Arabia and on the shores of the Dead Sea." 



Of the lizards ten species are known from Socotra. Six of these, dis- 

 covered by our expedition and examined by Mr Blandford, \ yielded three 

 new species, and of the three known forms one is found at Muscat and at 

 Bushire in the Persian Gulf, another is a Senegal and north Abyssinia form, 

 and the third is reported from Madagascar. 



* P. L. Sclater and G. Hartlaub : On the Birds collected in Socotra by Prof. I. B. Balfour, in Proc 

 Zool. Soc, January 18, 1881, pp. 165-175, with plates xv.-xvii. Dr Hartlaub's account of the 

 birds collected by the German expedition will be found in Proc. ZooL Soc, London, 1881, p. 953. 



t A. Giinther: Description of the Amphisbaenians and Ophidians collected by Prof. I. Bayley Balfour 

 in the Island of Socotra, in Proc. Zool. Soc, April 5, 1881, pp. 441-463, with plates xl. and xli. 



% W. T. Blandford : Notes on the Lizards collected in Socotra by Prof. I. Bayley Balfour, in 

 Proc. Zool. Soc, April 5, 1881, pp. 464-469, with plate, xlii. 



