_Birds._--So many of the European birds migrate over large portions of the region, and so many others have a wide permanent range, that we cannot expect to find more than a few genera, consisting of one or two species, each, confined to a sub-region; and such appear to be, _Lusciniola_ and _Pyrophthalma_, genera of Sylviidæ. But many are characteristic of this, as compared with other Palæarctic sub-regions; such as, _Bradyptetus_, _Aedon_, _Dromoloea_, and _Cercomela_, among Sylviidæ; _Crateropus_ and _Malacocercus_, among Timaliidæ; _Telophonus_ among Laniidæ; _Certhilauda_ and _Mirafra_ among larks; _Pastor_ among starlings; _Upupa_, the hoopoe; _Halycon_ and _Ceryle_ among kingfishers; _Turnix_ and _Caccabis_ among Gallinæ, and the pheasant as an indigenous bird; together with _Gyps_, _Vultur_ and _Neophron_, genera of vultures. In addition to these, almost all our summer migrants spend their winter in some part of this favoured land, mostly in North Africa, together with many species of Central Europe that rarely or never visit us. It follows, that a large proportion of all the birds of Europe and Western Asia are to be found in this sub-region, as will be seen by referring to the list of the genera of the region. Palestine is one of the remote portions of this region which has been well explored by Canon Tristram, and it may be interesting to give his summary of the range of the birds. We must bear in mind that the great depression of the Dead Sea has a tropical climate, which accounts for the presence here only, of such a tropical form as the sun-bird (_Nectarinea osea_). The total number of the birds of Palestine is 322, and of these no less than 260 are European, at once settling the question of the general affinities of the fauna. Of the remainder eleven belong to North and East Asia, four to the Red Sea, and {204}thirty-one to East Africa, while twenty-seven are peculiar to Palestine. It is evident therefore that an unusual number of East African birds have extended their range to this congenial district, but most of these are desert species and hardly true Ethiopians, and do not much interfere with the general Palæarctic character of the whole assemblage. As an illustration of how wide-spread are many of the Palæarctic forms, we may add, that seventy-nine species of land birds and fifty-five of water birds, are common to Palestine and Britain. The Oriental and Ethiopian genera _Pycnonotus_ and _Nectarinea_ are found here, while _Bessornis_ and _Dromolæa_ are characteristically Ethiopian. Almost all the other genera are Palæarctic.