Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 283 
The Common Cuckoo, Cuculus canorus, L., was a much later 
arrival than the other. We did not observe it before the 30th of 
March. It is generally spread over the country, and, unlike its 
ally, is particularly abundant in the Jordan valley, where it is 
ceaselessly pursued with noisy clamours by the Crateropus cha- 
lybeius. The only egg of this Cuckoo we found was near 
Jericho, in the nest of a Desert-Lark, Ammomanes isabellinus. 
In my list in the Zoological f Proceedings ' for 1864, I gave 
with great hesitation as new, under the name of Cuculus libano- 
ticus , a bird shot by Mr. Cochrane in Lebanon in April. Fur¬ 
ther consideration induces me to cancel this species, as I feel 
now convinced that it is only a very remarkable specimen of the 
Cuculus hepaticus , a supposed species, satisfactorily disposed of 
by Temminck, which he says is far more common in the south¬ 
east than elsewhere. He has also mentioned the fact of these 
hepatic birds retaining the juvenile plumage to the second 
year, as must have been the case in our bird obtained in April. 
I possess hepatic specimens of the Indian Polyphasia tenuiros- 
tris, which differ similarly from the typical form, and especially 
in the reversal of the ordinary barring of the rectrices, black in¬ 
stead of white. The rufous plumage and the partial retention 
of the youthful mottled dress may be a symptom of disease or 
weakness, which may also account for the unusually diminutive 
size of the specimen. 
Of Woodpeckers Palestine boasts but a single species, Picus 
syriacus , H. & Ehr., which I take to be identical with P. cruen - 
tatus 3 Antin., as the latter author mentions but this single species. 
I regret that I am not now able to refer to Malherbe's 
splendid Monograph. Wherever we found the Jay, the Wood¬ 
pecker was invariably in its company—in habits, flight, and 
voice precisely like our Picus major , with which it is so closely 
allied as not to be easily distinguishable at first sight. I have 
been somewhat perplexed by Ehrenberg's diagnosis, in which he 
says it is of the size of P. medius , and <e pectoris fascia trans- 
versa interrupta coccineo-rosea." I have examined more than 
twenty specimens, and find them all nearly the size of P. major ■ 
and in only one can I see the faintest trace of the red band so 
conspicuous in P. numidicus. Possibly Antinori, not recognizing 
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