JI.es. ■ 33 



country, affecting especially open tillage and cultivated fields. It is 

 found in the same localities as its ally, but they never interbreed, though 

 the habits, note, nest and eggs are precisely similar. Most of the immi- 

 grants arrive before they have assumed their bright black and white 

 breeding dress, but in a few days they lose all traces of brown and grey. 



I should be inclined myself to agree with Ehrenberg, and separate the 

 Eastern form as .S'. aviphilcuca, ne\-er having met with the russet hue 

 so characteristic of Western specimens ; but I am assured that such occur 

 in Persia. 



The Black-eared Chat is found in all the countries bordering on the 

 Mediterranean, and in Persia, which appears to be its Eastern limit. 



10. Saxicola viclanolcuca. Giildenst. Nov. Com. Petr. xix., p. 468, 

 pi. 15. Black-throated Chat. 



This is the Eastern form of the Stapazine Chat of Western Europe, 

 and returns to Palestine for nidification about i6th March. It is very 

 numerous, and universally distributed in the lower and cultivated grounds, 

 and less abundantly on the hills. On its first arrival it still wears the 

 tawny hue of the Stapazine, but in a very few days the head and back 

 become silvery grey, and then a pure silvery white, when the bird forms a 

 conspicuous feature of the landscape, .perched on the tops of the thistles 

 and tall weeds of the plains. I never found a trace of buff on the 

 breeding birds. 



This species is found in North-East Africa and South-East Europe, 

 Asia-Minor, and Syria. It occurs in Persia, and has been met with in 

 Yarkand, its Eastern limit. It appears to winter south of Egypt. 



11. Saxicola desert i. Temm. PL Col., pi. 359, fig. 2. Desert 

 Chat. 



The Desert Chat Is only found in the desert portions of Palestine, 

 especially among the sand wastes north and south of the Dead Sea, and 

 south of Beersheba, in all which it is a permanent resident, nesting in the 

 holes of Jerboas and other desert rodents. 



As its name implies, it is a strictly desert form, ranging from the 

 Sahara, through the desert regions of Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and Scinde, 



5 



