TURDIN.E. 



23 



ff/» 



THE BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR. 



Saxicola stapazina, Vieillot. 



A male in adult plumage of this handsome South-European 

 species was shot about the 8th of May 1875, near Bury in Lanca- 

 shire, and subsequently recorded by Mr. R. Davenport, who, as 

 should always be done in the case of such rare visitors, sent the 

 specimen for exhibition at a meeting of the Zoological Society 

 (P. Z. S. 1878, pp. 881, 977). A bird, probably of this species, was 

 seen and sketched by Mr. H. B. Hewetson near Spurn, Yorkshire, 

 on September i8th 1892 (Zool. 1892, p. 424, and 1895, p. 57). 



Although some occurrences formerly recorded under this name in 

 Heligoland were really those of the Desert-Wheatear, yet the 

 present species seems to have been obtained there once ; while 

 Schlegel records it from Haarlem, Holland. It breeds regularly 

 about as far north as the line of the Loire in France ; southward, in 

 the Spanish Peninsula, Morocco, Algeria and Italy. In the latter 

 country it meets with S. inelanoleiica, Giildenstadt : a form which 

 some ornithologists consider to be specifically distinct, characterized 

 by a whiter back and larger amount of black on the throat. This 

 form occupies Greece, South Russia, Asia Minor, Palestine and 

 Persia ; both races migrating wholly or partially to more southern 



