SAXICOLA. 75 



Habits, §c. Breeds in May and June, building its nest in a hole 

 of a stone wall or in a pile of stones. The eggs are described as 

 being pale blue, with small dusky red freckles, and one measured 

 •72 by -56. 



622. Saxicola barnesi. Barnes's Chat. 



Saxicola ervthraea, Hemp, fy Ehr., apud Blanford, East. Pers. ii. 



p. 150. 

 Saxicola finschii, Heugl., apud Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 388 (part.) ; 

 apud St, John, Ibis, 1889, p. 168. 



Coloration. Male. After the autumn moult the forehead, crown, 

 nape, hind neck, and the middle portion of the back are buff; the 

 sides of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, tertiaries, lores, sides of 

 the head and neck, chin, and throat black, a few of the feathers 

 with narrow pale fringes ; winglet and primary-coverts black, 

 broadly edged with pale buffy white ; quills dark brown, more 

 narrowly edged with pale buff ; rump, upper tail-coverts, breast, 

 and lower plumage white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries black ; 

 tail white, except the terminal half of the middle pair of feathers 

 and a band at the tip of all the others, which are black. In 

 summer the buff upper plumage wears down almost to a white 

 colour, and the fringes on the black portions are cast. 



The female is unknown to me. The female of the allied 8. 

 finschi is thus described by Canon Tristram : — " Back uniform 

 cinereous ; wings brown ; rump white ; tail white, with broad 

 black termination like the male ; throat pale ashy brown ; rest of 

 lower parts dull white." 



Length nearly 7; tail 2-6; wing 3*7; tarsus 1-05; bill from 

 gape - 2. 



This species differs from S. finschi, the only Chat with which it 

 can be confounded, in having only the chin and throat black, and 

 this colour not connected with the axillaries, from which it is 

 separated by a broad band of white. In S. finschi the breast is 

 black, and connected with the black axillaries. 



Distribution. Occurs in Baluchistan and Afghanistan and east- 

 wards to Persia. This species is probably resident in all parts of 

 its range. 1 have examined specimens obtained at Quetta in 

 February, at Kandahar in March and September, and in Persia in 

 March and June. 



623. Saxicola vittata. The Black-backed Eared Chat. 



Saxicola vittata, Hempr. § Ehr. Symb. Phys. Aves, fob cc (1833) ; 

 Blanf. ,y Dresser, P. Z. 8. 1874, p. 220 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, 

 p. 396; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 59; Hume, S. F. ix, p. 324 note ; 

 Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 444 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1882, p. 277. 



Coloration, Male. In autumn the forehead, crown, nape, hind 

 neck, and a small portion of the upper back are white, tinged with 



