477 
from the Dead Sea and North-western Arabia. 
the Depression to the coast-region, where it is found from 
Jaffa to Beirut. 
Other remarkable birds, typical of the vicinity of the 
Dead Sea, are the Fan-tailed Raven ( Corvus affinis ), 
Tristram's Grackle (. Amydrus tristrami), the Palestine 
Bush-Babbler (. Argya squamiceps) , and the Chat-Robin 
(Cercomela melanura). 
In January 1909 I made a collection at the Oasis of 
Tebuk and in the surrounding district. During February 
and March I travelled over the country which extends from 
the Dead Sea south-eastwards to the borders of Nejd in 
Central Arabia. This land was, of course, very poor in 
bird-life, but two especially interesting observations were 
made, namely, the occurrence in N.W. Arabia of the Ostrich 
and of a peculiar Lark ( Ammomanes saturatus), the latter 
having hitherto only been recorded from Abyssinia and 
Southern Arabia. Travel in this region was extremely 
hazardous, and necessity forced me to journey fast from 
well to well; thus collecting was almost impossible. Many 
of the specimens which I preserved were skinned as I rode 
along on camel-back. 
After my return from the desert-region, a journey was 
made on foot over the rough country that borders the Dead 
Sea on the east. The hot-springs of Callirhoe in the Wadi 
Zerka Main were visited, the Wadis Beni Hammad, Numeira, 
and Hessi were explored, and the jungle-covered shores of 
the sea itself, at Ghor el Mezreh and Ghor es Sarfeh, were 
fairly well worked. 
The return journey led, via Kerak and Madeba, to Salt, 
and thence, via the Jordan Valley, to Tiberias and Damascus. 
This collection was made expressly for the museum of the 
American College in Beirut, and I should advise any 
member of the British Ornithologists' Union who happens 
to pass through Syria to make a point of visiting that 
museum, where he will find a very representative collection 
of the fauna of Syria and Palestine. 
The following list of birds contains the names of those 
which I obtained on these journeys. Specimens of most of 
