622 Col. B. Meinertzhagen on Birds from [Ibis, 
species or geographical races o£ birds which occur within the 
Palsearctic Begion. I was in Palestine during nearly the 
whole of 1917, but the war prevented anything but a small 
representative collection being made, the results of which 
have been already published in ‘The Ibis ’ of January 1920. 
I returned to the Near East in August 1919 and remained 
there till August 1920. During that period I spent about 
half my time in Syria and Palestine and half in Egypt, 
visiting Aleppo, Damascus, the Syrian Desert, Lebanon, 
Beyrouth, and the Jordan Valley, also Solium and the Siwa 
Oasis in the western Desert of Egypt. I traversed the desert 
between Suez and Cairo twice, I visited the Fayoum twice, 
and the Wadi Hof near Helouan on several occasions. I 
finally spent a month in Crete. 
Collecting was carried on everywhere and under all con¬ 
ditions. Powell, who did all my skinning, was at times 
hard-worked. On one occasion I returned to Damascus from 
the Syrian Desert with an Eagle-Owl, a Bock-Pigeon, 
three Chukar, and eleven smaller birds. Powell had the lot 
skinned and made up into first-class skins in six hours. 
Again, in the Jordan Valley (notwithstanding the sweltering- 
heat and myriads of mosquitos) I returned with two Stone- 
Curlew, two Kestrel, two Little Owls, three Chukar, three 
Starlings, and a Dotterel. All were done that evening. 
I have again to thank my friend Mr. M. J. Nicoll for so 
kindly housing my collections in Cairo and helping me with 
advice; and to Lord Bothschild and Dr. Hartert I again 
offer my sincerest thanks for the assistance afforded me in 
working out my collections at Tring. Finally, I have to 
thank Sir Geoffrey Archer for allowing me to look through 
his collection of Somaliland birds. 
Wing measurements are taken flat and fully extended. 
Culmen measurements are those of the upper mandible from 
its junction wdth the skull, unless otherwise mentioned. 
All measurements are given in millimetres. 
Throughout this paper the name Kenya Colony is used for 
British East Africa, and the name Tanganyika Territory is 
used for German East Africa. 
