NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 85 



and Southern Persia, and eastwards to the plains and 

 plateaux of Turkestan, where it is found as high as 

 12,000 feet, and the mountains of Northern Cashmere. 



Breeding habits : The Desert Wheatear, as its 

 name impHes, is a dweller amongst the deserts, an in- 

 habitant of sterile sandy plains, rock-strewn mountain 

 sides, steep gorges and defiles, and the shifting, crumbling 

 drifts of sand. How a bird can support life in many of 

 these localities always seemed a puzzle to me. The 

 present species appears to mate annually, is not at all 

 gregarious, and lives in scattered pairs. Sometimes 

 several pairs may be found dwelling in close companion- 

 ship on a small area of desert ground, yet each keeps 

 closely to itself Notwithstanding the fact that many 

 naturalists have met with this bird in its summer haunts, 

 only the most meagre details have been published con- 

 cerning its nidification. The nest always appears to be 

 made upon the ground, sometimes sheltered by a little 

 bush, sometimes in a fissure of the rocks or under a large 

 stone, occasionally in a hole in the wall of a desert well, 

 or even in the burrow of a marmot or other rodent. It 

 is a loosely-made, cup-shaped structure, composed of dry 

 grass and bents, and lined with finer grass and roots. 

 Of the actions of the birds at the nest nothing appears 

 to have been recorded. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The number of eggs laid by the Desert Wheatear is 

 apparently unknown, the eggs themselves being very 

 rare. Specimens that I have examined are pale greenish- 

 blue in ground colour, with numerous small spots of rich 

 dark brown and paler brown, usually in the form of a 

 zone round the larger end. Average measurement, 77 

 inch in length by '49 inch in breadth. The duration of 

 the period of incubation is unknown, as is also which 

 parent performs the duty. 



