Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 75 
new Goatsucker (Plate II.), described by me last year (Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1864, p. 170), under the name Caprimulgus tamaricis*, from 
our having found it only among the tamarisk-trees which occa¬ 
sionally fringe the edges of the Dead Sea. The first specimen we 
obtained was a male bird, on the 13th January, just after sunset, 
on our arrival at our camping-ground at Ain Peshkhah, near the 
north-west end of the Dead Sea. This is a strange and isolated 
spot, an oasis of cane-brakes fringed by tamarisk-bushes, in a 
little flat fed by an abundant hot spring, and shut in on three 
sides by savage and precipitous cliffs many hundred feet high, 
which are the homes of the ci coney 33 of Scripture ( Hyraoc Syria - 
cus) and of Amydrus tristrami. We watched in vain for another; 
but at Engedi we saw the species again; and when camped a 
fortnight later at Jebel Usdum, at the south end of the Sea, we 
saw several of these birds, and Mr. Bartlett succeeded in shoot¬ 
ing one in the gloaming, which he found on the following morn¬ 
ing hanging in a bush. Away from the margin of the Dead 
Sea we never saw it, not even in the sheltered spots which 
occasionally dot the upper parts of the Jordan valley. I recog¬ 
nize it as the same species which I saw mounted in a collection 
made by the son of the late Mr. R. Herschell, and which I 
mentioned in a former volume of this Journal (Ibis, 1862, p. 278) 
as a small species shot in the valley of the Jordan. 
In form and size it much resembles C. asiaticus , but it is a trifle 
larger in all its dimensions, which more closely resemble those 
of C. rufigena } Smith, found in Southern and Western Africa. 
It differs, however, from this in coloration, and more especially in 
the shorter wings and longer tail. The colouring differs from 
that of every other Nightjar with which I am acquainted, but most 
* As a matter of convenience to my readers, I append at full length 
the description of the species as given in the 1 Proceedings of the Zoolo¬ 
gical Society ’ above cited. 
“ Caprimulgus tamaricis. 
11 Cinerascenti-isabellinus, nigro minute vermiculatus: fascia collari pos- 
tica et maculis humeralibus rufescenti-isabellinis: mento et fascia 
gulari albis: alarum primariis nigris, vitta lata alba; secundariis 
rufis, nigro transfasciatis: alis intus et tectricibus subalaribus pallide 
rufis: caudse rectricibus duabus utrinque externis pallide rufis, nigro 
frequenter et irregulariter transfasciatis, apicibus late albis; ceteris 
dorso concoloribus. 
u Long, tota 9'0, alae 5‘6, caudae 4*2.” 
