474 PERCHING BIRDS 



example was shot near Pett, Sussex, in the autumn of 1905. Of the 

 western race {S. stapazijia catcriuic), which breeds in Spain and Algeria, 

 one specimen was killed near Polegate in Sussex in the spring of 

 1902, and a second in the same county in May 1905. In this race 

 (sometimes named .V. albicollis cntcn'ncc) the under side of the primary 

 and secondary quills is light-coloured. 



The black-throated wheatear {S. occideutalis), of the Mediterranean 

 countries, is known in this country by one specimen killed in Lanca- 

 shire in May 1875, a second at Lydd, Kent, in the corresponding 

 month of 1906, and a third in I'^air Isle in 1907. 



An equally rare straggler to the British Isles is the desert-wheatear, 

 or desert-chat {Saxico/a dcscrti), which breeds in northern Africa, 

 Palestine, Arabia, and Persia, and winters in Baluchistan and north- 

 western India. Of this species one example was recorded from 

 Clackmannanshire in November 1880, a second from Yorkshire in 

 October 1885, a third from Arbroath in December 1887, and a fourth 

 at Pentland Skerries in June 1906. 



-^,, . , , In the older works on British birds (as in a few 

 Whmchat , ^ , , . , , \ ... , 



,„ ,. , modern ones) the whmchat and stonechat will be 

 (Pratmeola ^ 



, ^ > found included in the genus Saxicola. Since, how- 

 rubetrus). , ,.,,.„ '^ , , , 



ever, these birds dirfcr from the wheatear group by 



the broader beak and more numerous and stouter bristles at the gape, 

 they are best referred to a group by themselves. The male whinchat, 

 or furzechat, in summer-dress has the feathers of the upper-parts very 

 dark brown, approaching black, margined with bright sandy buff ; 

 there is one white streak above the eye, and a second running back- 

 wards from near the gape to terminate on the neck ; the wing has a 

 conspicuous white patch formed by the inner coverts, and there is a 

 similar patch on the primary quills, formed by the greater coverts, 

 which are tipped with black ; the tail is white at the base and dark 

 brown at the tip ; while the throat and breast are light fawn, gradually 

 passing towards the abdomen into buff. In autumn all the colours 

 become much less bright. The hen lacks the white upper tail-coverts 

 and has a smaller wing-patch, while the e\'e-stripc is buff, the upper- 

 parts being pale-coloured and distinctly streaked. In young birds 

 the feathers of the upper-parts are dark brown with triangular buff 

 spots. 



The whinchat is the t}pical representative of an exclusively Old 

 World genus (not extending east of Celebes) with about a score of 

 species. The summer-range of the whinchat itself includes the greater 



