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Show 220 MESSRS. BLANFORD AND DRESSER ON [Apr. 21, crown, neck, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, throat, and entire underparts white, faintly clouded with pale rufous on the breast and back; central tail-feathers white on the basal third, otherwise jet-black, the outermost feathers half white; remaining rectrices white, very broadly tipped with black ; under wing-coverts black ; legs and bill black ; iris brown. Culmen 062, wing 3'5, frail 2'65, tarsus 1. Adult male in winter. Differs from the specimen last described in having the centre of the crown, nape, and back rich pale creamy rufous to rufous brown, the breast being of the same colour, but somewhat paler, and the entire underparts being washed with a rufescent tinge. Adult female in summer. Differs from the male in having the crown, nape, and back dull brownish grey, the patch on the side of the head and wings much duller, being brownish black, not black; upper wing-coverts slightly tipped with rufous; underparts white, marked with rufous on the breast. As is the case with all the Chats of this group, the present. species often has the white on the back and breast obscured or replaced by a rich rufescent cream-tinge, which appears to form its winter livery, and in all plumages there is some slight trace of this colour either on the back or the breast. IJab. Southern Europe, Asia Minor, Persia, and northern Africa. There is no doubt that this is the bird described by Linnaeus as S. stapazina, although that name has been generally applied to S. rufa. The description in the ' Systema Naturae' is the following:- "M. ferruginea, area oculorum alis caudaque fuscis," which can only apply to the present species. The first reference is to Edwards's plate, on which both forms are figured. 3. SAXICOLA VITTATA. Saxicola vittata, Ehrenb. Symb. Phys. fol. cc (1829) (type examined). Saxicola leucolama, Antinori & Salvadori, Att. R. Accad. Sci. Tor. viii. p. 32(1872). Saxicola melanogenys, Severtz. Turk. Jevotn. p. 120 (1873). Saxicola melanotis, Sev. torn. cit. pi. viii. figs. 5, 6. Saxicola leucolama, Salvad. & Ant. Annal. Mus. Civ. Genova, iv. p. 101, tab. ii. (1873). Adult. Crown, nape, and upper part of back greyish white ; back and wings black ; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; quills brownish black, secondaries and larger wing-coverts slightly tipped with dirty white; central rectrices white on the basal third, otherwise black, remaining rectrices white, terminated with black, on the outermost pair this colour extends on the outer web along the terminal half; lores and a broad band passing through the eye and joining the base of the wing jet-black ; chin, throat, and underparts generally pure white. Culmen 0-7, wing 3"9, tail 2*55, tarsus 0*7. Sex undetermined. The above is the description of the type specimen in the Berlin |