352 SYLVIID^. 



who states that one was shot there October 5th, 1846, and 

 a second seen by himself and Colonel Drummond-Hay, in 

 March, 1850. 



The Wheatear is abundant on the European Continent, 

 due regard being had to the kind of locality it afiects, even 

 to the neighbourhood of the North Cape, and, according to 

 Pallas, it extends over the whole of Siberia, being most fre- 

 quent about the Jeuesei and beyond Lake Baikal, but accord- 

 ing to more recent Russian authorities, not going much 

 further eastward, though Prof. Sundevall states that it 

 reaches Kamtchatka. Pere David says that it breeds in the 

 central mountains of extreme Ordo, north-west of Pekin. 

 It occurs not unfrequently in the upper provinces of India, 

 Jerdon having obtained it at Mhow, and Beavan at Umballa 

 and Morar. It is said to be the most abundant of its class 

 in all the plains of Persia. Mr. Abbott sent specimens 

 from Armenia, and though, according to Dr. Kriiper, it 

 breeds in Asia Minor, in Palestine it seems to be only a bird 

 of passage*. Mr, Tyrwhitt Drake obtained it in the penin- 

 sula of Sinai, and it is a regular winter-visitant to Arabia 

 and North-eastern Africa, ascending the Nile valley, at least 

 as far as Khartoum, where Dr. A. E. Brelim found it. 

 Chambers-Hodge tts saw it in Tripoli. It is said to breed in 

 Algeria, and it occurs on the west coast of Africa as far 

 southward as Senegal and the Gambia. On the Canaries, 

 according to Dr. Bolle, it occurs numerously in some winters, 

 and Mr. Godman found it breeding in the western group of 

 the Azores, where he believes it has only lately established 

 itself. 



The occurrence of this species in eastern North America 

 as a probable straggler from Greenland has already been 

 mentioned, but singularly enough, in the extreme north- 

 western part of that continent, the territory of Alaska, 

 Wheatears would seem to be regular summer-visitants, and 



Syrian specimens have reinaikably large bills, ami have been separated as 

 a distinct species, S. rostniki, Heinpr. & Ehrenb. ; but its validity is generally 

 doubted. 



