104 PALLAS'S LOCUSTELLE. 



illustration of tlie adaptation of species to climate and 

 country, and hence a confirmation of the doctrine of 

 special creation, and permanence and immutability of 

 species — a great truth which has lately been assailed in 

 a work which contains more sophistry and unsound de- 

 duction than any book that has ever been printed. 



Of the species of Syloiadce omitted in the present 

 work, I will make one or two remarks. — 



1. Sijhia 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 Locustelle; 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.familiaris, 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 

 upjDer part of the body. Temminck and Keyserling and 

 Blasius think them identical. Degland, in a note to 

 S. galactodes, merely draAvs attention to Schlegel's state- 

 ment. 



The Eev. 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- 



