286 SAXICOLA. STONECHAT. 



large and broad nasal membrane, which is anteriorly bare. 

 Eyes of moderate size ; the eyelids feathered, their edges 

 bare and crenate. External aperture of the ear large, and 

 romidish. 



The general form is rather compact ; the body ovate, the 

 neck short, the head rather large, ovate, and somewhat de- 

 pressed. The legs rather long and slender ; tarsus rather long, 

 slender, much compressed, covered anteriorly with a long 

 plate and four inferior scutella, posteriorly with two long 

 plates meeting at an extremely acute angle. Toes rather 

 short, slender, the second and fourth about equal, the first 

 strongest and longer, the third much longer, and united to 

 the fourth as far as the second joint of the latter. Claws 

 rather long, moderately arched, extremely compressed, late- 

 rally grooved, acute. 



Plumage generally blended, the feathers rounded, with loose 

 filaments, their plumule slender. Wings long, broad, semi- 

 ovate, straight ; quills eighteen ; the first primary extremely 

 small, being about a fourth of the length of the second, which 

 is almost as long as the third, the latter scarcely longer than 

 the second, so that the second, third and fourth are longest and 

 nearly equal ; the primaries rounded, the secondaries broad, 

 abruptly rounded, the outer slightly emarginate. Tail of mo- 

 derate length, nearly even, straight, the feathers of moderate 

 breadth and abruptly rounded. There are short bristle- 

 feathers at the base of the upper mandible, and the gular fea- 

 thers are bristle-tipped. 



I have judged it proper to divide the genus Saxicola of Tem- 

 minck and other authors, for the following reasons. Motacilla 

 ffinanthe, M. Rubetra, M. Rubicola, and M. Phoenicurus of 

 Linnaeus are very intimately allied, but present considerable 

 differences. In the first of these species the bill is much longer, 

 but of nearly the same form as in the rest, only the tip of the 

 upper mandible is much less deflected, and the notch obsolete ; 

 in the second and third the tip is distinctly declinate and the 

 notch distinct ; in the fourth the bill resembles that of the first, 

 but is shorter. The tarsi are proportionally longer in the first, 

 which has stronger and shorter claws. In it the winsfs are 



