THE WHITE-RUMPED CHAT 



Saxicola leucopygia 



General plumage, black with slae-blue reflections ; rump, 

 white ; tail, black ; outside feathers, white ; beak and 

 legs, black ; eyes, brown. Length varying from 6^ to 7 

 inches. 



I CONFESS to finding the Chats a puzzling order of 

 birds to identify when seen in the open. In the 

 case of some, not only is the female larger, but of 

 such a different aspect and dull sandy colour that 

 it is really difficult to believe that it is in any 

 way related to the startlingly plumaged black and 

 white male bird. All the Chats love the desert 

 more than the cultivated ground, and I myself 

 have never seen this Chat save on rocks or sand. 

 The visitor going to the Tombs of the Kings at 

 Thebes, or around the Pyramids, should certainly 

 see this bird, as it is there common, and owing to 

 its way of flitting sharply from one point to another, 

 and sitting high up on the top of some boulder, with 

 its strongly contrasted black and white plumage, is 

 always a very conspicuous object. What it gets 

 to live on in these desert places is hard to see, but 



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