DESERT WHEATEAR. 23 1 



which take refuge on these isolated northern isles must be 

 hopelessly lost, drifted far from their normal routes. In spring 

 the male is a white and black bird, slightly washed on the 

 breast and back with sandy buff, but with a black face and 

 throat below the superciliary stripe. The under wing-coverts 

 are black. The female is browner above, except for the 

 characteristic rump and tail, and her throat is greyish. After 

 the autumn moult the male is browner, the crown, breast and 

 back rich buff, and the secondaries are broadly margined with 

 buff. Length, 5 "6 ins. Wing, 3*5 ins. Tarsus, i in. 



Desert Wheatear. CEfianthe deserti (Temm.). 



Western and Eastern forms of the Desert Wheatear have 

 been several times met with in England and Scotland, but all 

 examples have not been critically examined ; indeed, though 

 the males in summer of all these species and sub-species of 

 wheatear are more or less distinct, the autumn, female and 

 immature plumages are puzzling. There is also difference of 

 opinion amongst systematists about nomenclature, and in 

 some cases specific rank. The Western Desert Wheatear is a 

 bird of the Sahara and north Arabia, yet it has wandered to 

 Yorkshire and Norfolk, and probably to Scotland ; the Eastern 

 CE. d. albifrons (Brandt), is found in the deserts of central 

 Asia and in winter in India and north-east Africa. It has been 

 taken in the Orkneys and Kent in spring, though the other 

 form has only reached us in autumn. 



The upper parts of the male in summer are buff; the under 

 parts white with a buff tinge on the breast. The under wing- 

 coverts show white, owing to their white tips. The black on 

 the face and throat extends to the shoulders, and there is a 

 distinct white superciliary stripe. The best character, constant 

 in both sexes at all ages, is that the entire tail is black to the 

 level of the upper tail-coverts. The female is greyer above and 



