Ornithology of Northern Africa. 299 



food compels the Rock-Chats to distribute themselves very 

 sparsely. 



This bird has been mistaken by Capt. Loche in his catalogue 

 for Dromolcea monachal of Eastern Africa, from which it is quite 

 distinct. 



36. Saxicola PHiLOTHAMNAt, Tristram, Ibis, 1859, p. 58. 

 (Bush-Chat.) (Plate IX. fig. 1 c? , 2 $ .) 



I have some doubts as to whether this bird should not be 

 placed among the Dromolcea, from its structural characters. But 

 though the largest of its genus, it is in all its habits certainly a 

 Saxicola, and not a Rock-Chat. I have, therefore, proposed to 

 allow it to remain in the old genus. I first met with it near 

 the caravanseray of A'in eV Ibel, a day's journey north of El' 

 Aghouat, and thenceforward until our approach, in the follow- 

 ing spring, to the Tunisian frontier it occurred sparingly at 

 intervals, wherever the nature of the country afi'orded scope for 

 its peculiar habits. I found it near the Dayats of El' Aghouat, 

 near Waregla, and far to the north-east at El Mari'er, south-cast 

 of Biskra. It is a constant resident and a very early breeder in 

 those portions of the Desert which are composed of loose sand 

 studded with low stunted bushes. Among rocks or in the Salt- 

 districts I never detected it. It perches, like the Whinchat, on 

 the top of |a bush, uttering incessantly a very similar note. 

 The male and female are constantly together, and on being 

 alarmed take refuge sometimes in flight, but more generally 

 disappear into a burrow in the sand. The first I shot vanished 

 in a moment, and though certain he had fallen, I was compelled to 

 relinquish my search. The second disappeared as mysteriously; 

 but observing a drop of blood at the entrance of what seemed 

 to be a small lizard's hole, I dug down, and, after a quarter of 

 an hour's excavation, recovered the bird, quite dead. At this 



* Figured in Temminck's PI. Col. 359. fig. 1. 



t This species is certainly the same as lioche's Dromolcea isabellina 

 (Cat. Mamm. et Ois. p. 64), as testified by his marked specimens; but it is 

 not the bird to which Temminck and lliippell have given that specific 

 name. Dr. Hartlaub, to whom we sent a copy of the figure, with a request 

 to assist us in identifying it, informs us that the female is marked S. rufi- 

 ceps, Buvry, in the Berlin Museum. — (Ed.) 



