24 BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR. 



The Black-throated Wheatear is ver\^ common in Southern 

 Europe from the middle of March ; making a loose nest of bents 

 and grass in holes and crevices, especially in old ruins ; and Mr. 

 Seebohm found it breeding in the Parnassus up to an elevation of 

 3,000 feet. The eggs, rather elliptical-ovate in shape, are of a pale 

 sea-green colour, freckled with brown : measurements, '75 by "6 in. 

 In song, habits and food, it resembles the Common Wheatear. The 

 name stapaziua refers to its noisy scolding note. 



The adult male in spring has the forehead white, the crown and 

 upper back golden-buff, becoming paler as the season advances ; 

 throat, lores and ear-coverts black ; wings nearly black ; lower back 

 white ; the two central tail-feathers black almost to their bases, 

 the rest white, margined with an amount of black which is subject 

 to great diminution and partial disappearance with age ; under parts 

 bufifish-white : mider wing-coveris black ; bill, legs and feet black. 

 In July and August, when the autumn moult takes place, the crown, 

 nape, upper back and breast are rich buff; the wing-coverts and 

 secondaries broadly margined with pale buff. Length 5 "6 in. ; wing 

 3 "6 in. The female differs in having the throat merely mottled with 

 black ; the head streaked with hair-brown ; upper back sandy- 

 brown : wings dark brown ; under parts dirty buff. The young 

 resemble the female in general, but are rather more rufous ; and they 

 have less white in the tail than the adults of the respective sexes. 



To obviate the perpetuation of confusion, I may remark that the 

 species here described is the one which Mr. Dresser in his ' Birds 

 of Europe ' called " Saxicola rufa (Russet Chat) " ; but the bird was 

 re-instated under its old and well-known name by the Committee of 

 the British Ornithologists' Union. Unfortunately Mr. Dresser has 

 transferred the specific name stapazina to the Eared Wheatear, 

 S. albicollis (Vieill.), S. aurita (Temm.) : another southern species, 

 which has not straggled to our islands, although erroneously entered 

 in the British list by Mr. W. E. Clarke (Cat. Yorkshire Yertebs. p. 19); 

 a mistake copied by [Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley in their 

 recent 'Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness and West Cromarty.' 



