286 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine . 
found in the Palsearctic region the whole are here represented, 
and by no less than fifteen species. The conspicuous features 
of the Palestinian ornis are beyond doubt its Alaudince and 
Saxicolince. In the southern wilderness in winter the flocks of 
Larks were in amazing numbers, consisting not of one or two 
but of eight species. We shot them by scores, and lived on 
them for days. The most abundant of all was perhaps the large 
Calandra Lark, Melanocorypha calandra (L.), a partial migrant, 
and wintering in the desert and southern wilderness, but breed¬ 
ing in the corn-plains and in the north, especially under Hermon. 
It appears that there are two races of this bird,—one larger, 
and darker in plumage, which breeds in the corn-plains, identi¬ 
cal with the Calandra of Algeria; the other smaller and more 
rufous, sometimes almost russet, which remains all winter near 
Damascus, and breeds in the uplands. My new species, Calan- 
drella hermonensis (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 434), forms a very 
pretty link from the subgenus Melanocorypha to Calandrella. 
Undoubtedly belonging to the latter, and only half the size of 
the former, in the interrupted black collar it much resembles 
the Calandra. 
Each of the three species of Calandrella is distinct in its 
habitat. The elegant little C. deserti, Tristr., the smallest of 
the group, is a strictly desert-bird, frequenting regions similar 
to those where it was discovered in the Sahara, in which it 
is a permanent resident, and less gregarious than most of its 
congeners. C. brachydactyla , Kaup, is, on the contrary, a sum¬ 
mer migrant, revisiting the central country late in spring and 
not occurring in the plains or desert in the winter. C. hermo¬ 
nensis appears to be confined to the higher mountain-zone of 
the north, and to be there a permanent resident. It breeds 
three weeks earlier than C. brachydactyla , from which it is distin¬ 
guished by its larger size, longer and more slender bill, bright 
rufous coloration, and by the distinctness of the blackish collar. 
There is also a much smaller extent of white on the outer tail- 
feathers. 
The next group, Ammomanes , is an exclusively desert form, 
and very closely allied to the typical Alauda. While in the 
Sahara it is represented by four species, we found but two 
