ON THE WHEATEARS (SAXICOLA) OCCrRRTXG TN NORTH 



AMERICA. 



By Leonhari) Stejneger, 



Onrdtor. Division of Reptiles and Bdtrarliianfi. 



Among the Passerine birds there is scarcely a g-enns more character- 

 istic of the Old World than Saxicola., forming, as it does, a very 

 compact and well-circumscribed group of about forty species inhabiting 

 Africa, Asia, and Europe. None of its near relatives, such as Pratin- 

 coJa, Iiiit!elUa, CyanecnJa^ Luscinia^ etc.. inhabit any part of the New 

 World. The Wheatears and their allies are consequently quite foreign 

 to the Nearctic fauna. 



The occurrence of the connnon European Wheatear {Saxlcola 

 a>nanth() in North America, at iirst thought to l)e only occasional or 

 accidental, but since ascertained to be that of a regular l)reed('r, has 

 therefore always excited interest fi'om a zoo-geographical standpoint, 

 especially as it was found that, although a typical migratory bird and 

 breeding both at the northeastern and the northwestei-n extremity of 

 our continent, it appeared as a regular migrant nowhere in North 

 America, the few isolated specimens recorded from Maine, Long Island, 

 and even Bermuda being easily recognized as stragglers. 



Once it was understood that the Wheatear was not a mere casual 

 visitor, but a legitimate native of our continent, ornithologists natu- 

 rally were on the lookout for differential characters l)y which to separate 

 the American birds specihcally; and Cassin, who was apparently the 

 tirst to handle a specimen from eastern North America, clearly pointed 

 out its distinctions and figured the specimen. Not unnaturally, at 

 that time (1854) he concluded that his Nova Scotia' specimen and the 

 one from northwestern America, which Vigors many years previously 

 had named Saxicola tvnanthoUhs, were identical, both being from 

 America, and he accordingly gave his ])ird this name, notwithstanding 



^According to Brewer, in the History of North American Birds, I, p. 60, this 

 specimen came in reality from Coal Harbor, Labrador. The <rcntU'nian who collected 

 it was from Nova Scotia. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXIII— No. 1220. 



473 



