476 Letters } Extracts from Correspondence , Notices , fyc. 
I brought away was a Bulbul ( Ixos xanthopygius), which I after¬ 
wards found to be very common among the orange-groves at 
Jaffa. Mar-Saba was the only place where I saw Tristram's 
Grackle ( Amydrus tristramii). This bird is very tame inside the 
convent-walls, but outside is by no means so easy of approach, 
and I was much vexed that I was obliged to come away without 
obtaining a specimen. At Jaffa we fell in with large flocks of 
Merops apiaster, but only shot three specimens, as they used to 
fly during the whole day at a very high elevation, and only come 
down late in the evening to roost among the orange-groves. I 
observed at Jaffa S colop ax gallinago , Linn., Tot anus calidris , 
Bechst., and Cuculus canorus, Linn. Every ornithologist who 
has made the tour of Syria must know how difficult it is to find 
time for skinning specimens, and still more how difficult it is to 
carry them when preserved; and as I endeavoured to avoid as 
much as possible destroying birds that I did not intend to 
preserve, this must be my excuse for not giving a much longer 
list of the birds I obtained in the southern part of Syria. 
The following extract is from a recent letter of Prof. Baird :— 
“We received a nice lot of birds some time ago from near 
Vera Cruz, and amongst them the long-lost Spiza leclancheri — 
a lovely species. We have had considerable additions from 
Mexico, and a few days ago the first instalments of Mr. Xantus's 
new collections came to hand, after two months' delay at Panama. 
They were all obtained at Colima. Since then he has collected 
largely in the mountains around, and added much to the list. 
This box (No. 1) contains about sixty species, many truly North 
American, others peculiar; among the latter are Crotophaga 
sulcirostrisj Centurus elegans , Hylotomus scapularis , Cissilopha 
sanblasiana, Cassiculus melanicterus , an Icterus very like I. cucul- 
latus, but different, I. pustulatus, Pitangus derbianus 3 Myiozetetes 
texensisj Myiarchus lawrencii , &c. There is a Pachyramphus 
there, very like P. aglaice vel affinis 3 but smaller, and white 
beneath, except the red and an ashy shade across the breast; 
the head above blackish, in strong and abrupt contrast to the 
cinereous back and tail: also a species of Zonotrichia , much like 
Z. mystacalis. 
