104 BIRDS OF DAMARA LAND. 



Like all the birds of this family it is very restless, 

 now flapping its wings, then raising and expanding the 

 tail or alternately raising and depressing its whole body. 

 It makes its nest on the ground, laying three or four 

 eggs, which are either greenish grey spotted with bro^vTi, 

 or nearly white spotted with brown and grey. 



The iris is very dark brown, and the biU, legs, and 

 feet are black. 



Measurements of a male and a female : — 



[I have examined the type specimen of Erythropyyia Galtoni, 

 Strickland^ wliicli is now preserved in the Museum of Zoology 

 at Cambridge^ and wliicli appears to belong to the present 

 species. 



The true Saxicola sperata of Gmelin is quite a distinct 

 species, and may be readily recognized by the whitish colour of 

 the rump, which is rufous in S. familiaris. — Ed.] 



130. Saxicola Schlegelii (Wahl.). Schlegel's Wheatear. 

 Erithacm Schleyelii, Wahlberg, Ofvers. 1855, p. 213. 



„ „ Wahlberg, Journal fiir Orn. 1857, p. 3. 



Saxicola moclesta, Tristram, in Ibis, 18G9, p. 206. 

 Saxicola Schlegeli, Sharpe's Cat. No. 254. 



This species is very common in Great Namaqua and 

 Damara Land, and frequents alike broken ground, low 

 bush, and old abandoned " werfts ;" it seems to prefer 

 low bushes for perching on, whence it descends to the 



