344 Mr. T. Ayres on the 



is gi'ey, dark at the base of the feathers, but pale, and slightly 

 tinged with brown, towards the tips ; there is, however, one 

 white feather visible on the throat ; the bill, tarsi, and feet 

 are black. 



Mr. Sharpe, at page 250 of his new edition of Mr. Layard^s 

 ' Birds of South Africa,' under the head of Saxicola anders- 

 soni, has the following remark : — '' The British Museum also 

 possesses a pair of wholly grey birds (males) , killed at Koy's 

 Fountain^ on the 18th and 21st June, 1862, and marked by 

 Mr. Andersson as the young of this species." Mr. Sharpe 

 has been good enough to compare the present specimen 

 (which has been added to the collection of the British Mu- 

 seum) with the two examples from Koy's Fountain, above 

 referred to, and agrees with me in considering that the three 

 belong to the same species, and that this is distinct from 

 S. anderssoni, and has not previously been described. 



Both the Namaqua specimens, however, are of a somewhat 

 darker grey on the mantle than the one obtained by Mr. 

 Ayres, and especially so about the lower part of the back ; 

 one of the Koy's-Fountain birds has also more conspicuous 

 black shaft-marks visible amongst the white feathers of the 

 lesser wing-coverts than is the case with the Transvaal bird ; 

 it has also the following coloration of the tail : on one side 

 the two outer rectrices are pure white, whilst the correspond- 

 ing pair on the other side of the tail are black and white ; 

 of these the exterior feather is white, with the tip and the 

 terminal half of the outer web black, the four central feathers 

 entirely black, and the intermediate rectrices also black, but 

 with the extreme base and the basal half of the inner web 

 white. The other Namaqua specimen has the lesser wing- 

 coverts greyish white, instead of pure white, and with some 

 black feathers intermixed ; the tail of this example has on 

 one side the oritermost feather pure white, and the next fea- 

 ther white with the terminal third black on both webs ; on 

 the other side of the tail the outermost feather is black, 

 with the basal half white, while the next feather is entirely 

 white ; the four central rectrices are entirely black, and the 

 * Great Namaqua Land. « 



