16 NOVITATES ZOOLOGICAE XXIV. 1917. 



formerly recorded under this name * in Heligoland were really those of the 

 Desert-Wheatear, yet the present species seems to have been obtained there 

 once ; while Schlegel records it from Haarlem, Holland. It breeds regularly 

 about as far north as the line of the Loire in France ; southward in the Spanish 

 Peninsula, Morocco, Algeria, and Italy. In the latter country it meets with 

 S. melanoleuca f Guldenstadt : a form which some ornithologists consider to 

 be specifically distinct, characterised by a whiter back and larger amount of 

 black on the throat. This form occupies Greece, South Russia, Asia Minor, 

 Palestine, and Persia ; both races migrating wholly or partially to more southern 

 regions in \\'inter and meeting in Tunisia. The extremes of each are distin- 

 guishable in adult males, but there appear to be numerous intergradations, and 

 I have therefore treated the bird under one heading." 



DESCRIPTION OP PLATE. 



Fig. I shows the golden-bufi of the upper parts separated by a dark greyish 

 transverse band from the white area over the tail ; also the central tail-feathers 

 black in their entire length to the base. 



Fig. 2 shows the golden-butf sweeping ventrally round the sides of the neck 

 and merging into the impure white of the under parts ; also the black axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts. 



Figs. 3 and 4 show the feet and small slender claws in profile ; in fig. 3 

 the tail is viewed from below, in fig. 4 from above. 



The silver-grey forehead, black face and throat with whitish semicircular 

 collar beneath, are shown in each of the four figures. 



Fig. 5 shows a dorsal view of the skull, the right frontal bone of which is 

 deeply indented (D). Surrounding the indentation is a considerable degree of 

 subcranial haemorrhage. This photograph was taken immediately after the 

 skin was reflected from the head, before the brain was removed and the skull 

 cleaned permanently. 



• The Black-throated Wheatear {Saxicola stapazina) described and figured in Saunders's 

 Manual, now known to be identical with the Black-throated form of the Western Black-eared 

 \Vhe&teQ.T(0enantheh.ki8panica). TheWestern WTiite-throated form has the same distribution, but 

 being considered by Saunders a distinct species (S. aurita) which had not then visited the British 

 Isles, its distribution is not mentioned in his book. 



■j- This bird is the Eastern Black-eared Wheatear {Oenanthe hispanica xanthomelaena) of modern 

 nomenclaturists. 



