TURDIN/E. 



^5?^ 



THE ISABELLINE WHEATEAR. 



Saxicola isabellina, Riippell. 



While the above sheets were in the press, my friend the Rev. 

 H. A. Macpherson brought to me in the flesh for identification a bird 

 shot by Mr. Thomas Mann, on a ploughed field, quite alone, at 

 AUonby, Cumberland, on nth November 1887. It proved to be 

 the Isabelline Wheatear, and was exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Zoological Society on 6th December. This south-eastern bird 

 had not previously been recorded from Heligoland or any part of 

 Western Europe, but it so closely resembles the female of the pre- 

 vious species that it might easily escape notice. When I mentioned 

 (p. 20) one of its distinguishing characteristics as being the white 

 under 7viiig, I had no presentiment that the test would so soon be 

 invoked. The bird, a female, is figured above. 



The Isabelline Wheatear is an early spring-visitor to South-eastern 

 Russia, especially the province of Astrachan and the arid plains of 

 the Caspian, and to Asia Minor ; whence, after breeding, it takes 

 its departure in autumn ; but in Palestine, Egypt, Eastern Africa 

 down to Somali- and Masai-land, Abyssinia, and Arabia, it a[)i)ears 



