334 XFEDID^. 



the quill- and tail-feathers are narrowly margined with white 

 towards the tips. Birds of the year have brownish margins to the 

 innermost secondaries. Vouiu/ in Jirst ijlumaf/e have pale tips to 

 the wing-coverts, pale shaft-lines to the feathers of the upper back, 

 and pale centres and brown margins to the feathers of the throat 

 and breast. 



The Eocky -Mountain Bluebird breeds throughout the Eocky 

 Mountains, and winters in California and the North-western United 

 States. 



a. S ad. St. Arctic America. Sir G. Back [P.]. 



6, c. § ; cf, e. cJ ad. sk. West side of Eocky Moun- J.K. Lord,Esq. [P.]. 



tains. 

 /. Ad. sk. N.W. America. 



9. RUTICILLA. rp^^g 



Rutieilla, C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1280 R. phoenicunis. 



Phcenicm-a, Stcaijis. Faun. Bar. -Am. ii. p. 489 (1831) E. phceDicurus. 

 Adelm-a, B}). Compt. Rend, xxxviii. p. 8 (1854) . . E. caeruleocephala. 



The genus BidiciUa comprises a group of thirteen species very 

 nearly allied to the Eobins. The bill is alwaj's short, slender, and 

 black, and the rictal bristles faii-ly developed ; the legs are always 

 black, or nearly so, and the tarsus unscutellated ; the tail consists 

 of twelve feathers, and is long and nearly even. Most of the species 

 have the rump and the tail-feathers, except the two centre ones, 

 chestnut. One species has the pattern of the tail Saxicoline, hut it 

 may at once be distinguished from the chestnut-tailed Chats by the tail 

 being about five times the length of the culmen. In two other species 

 there is little or no chestnut on the tail ; but they may be distin- 

 guisbed from the black or brown-tailed Eobins by the black on the 

 throat, and the white on the wing-coverts and iuuermost secondaries. 

 AD the male adult Eedstarts, except one species, have black or very 

 dark-blue throats. The Eedstarts are fair songsters, perch freely 

 in trees, but generally build in holes of walls, rocks, and tree-truuks. 

 Two species breed throughout temperate Europe, one of which 

 just enters Persia, and the other penetrates as far east as Central 

 Siberia. On the eastern shores of the Mediterranean "three other 

 species appear, two of which probably only just enter Persia, 

 whilst the third enters Turkestan. In the Caucasus a sixth species 

 begins, and continues eastwards through Turkestan and the Hima- 

 layas, to the borders of China. Two more species appear in 

 Turkestan, one of which extends eastwards to the Himalayas, and 

 the other to South-east Siberia. Four additional species appear in 

 the Himalayas, extending eastwards to West China ; whilst the last 

 species is first met with near Lake Baical, and extends to Japan and 

 North China. The genus may be said to be pretty evenly distri- 

 buted throughout the temperate Palsearctic Eegiou and the highlands 

 of the Himalayas, the number of species being greatest in the latter 

 district. 



