Plumage of tUe Moanta'in Chat. 33 



from the clutch of three in the possession of the last of these 

 institutions. 



The eggs vary little and those of each clutch hardly at all. 

 The ground-colour is olive-buff with some underlying 

 markings of lavender; the surface is rather evenly and freely 

 splashed with rounded spots of dark and light sepia. 



The surface is smooth and without gloss : shape " ovate- 

 pyriform.'" 



Sizes : average 43'0 X 30"0 mm. 



It may, perhaps, be added that the expressions of colour 

 and shape used in this paper are taken from Ridgway's 

 ' Nomenclature of Colors.' 



London, October 1909, 



X. — Notes on the Plumage of the Mountain Chat 

 (Saxicola moniicola, Bechd.).' By C. G. Da vies, M.B.O.U. 



As the different plumages of the Mountain (*hat have been 

 a puzzle to writers on S. African ornithology for many 

 years, and even now are little understood, i venture to hope 

 that the following notes may be of interest, and may perhaps 

 help towards the final settlement of this question. 



Before proceeding with my own observations, it will 

 perhaps be advisable to give a short summary of some of 

 the previous literature on the subject. 



In the volume of the ' Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society' for the year 1874, p. 213, Messrs. Blanford and 

 Dresser gave an important monograph of the genus Saxicola, 

 Bechstein, and in writing of the Mountain Chat, divided it 

 into five species, viz., Saxicola monticola, leucomelana, diluta, 

 griseiceps, and castor, being led astray by the different 

 plumages assumed by this species. 



Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, in the first volume of his edition of 

 Layard's ' Birds of S. Africa,' followed the example of the 



