DESERT-WHEATEAR. 305 
above the level of the sea. The winter-quarters of these birds are in 
Baluchistan, Scinde, and the North-west Provinces of India. 
The Desert-Chat is an inhabitant of those arid regions that appear, at 
first sight, to be utterly incapable of supporting life of any description— 
dreary trackless wastes of sand and rocks, devoid of trees and shrubs, whose 
sameness is only relieved by the variety of their physical aspect. But, “with 
all its monotony,” writes Canon Tristram (Ibis, 185, p. 277), “the Desert 
has its varieties. One day you laboriously pick your steps among bare rocks, 
now sharp enough to wound the tough sole of your camel, now so slippery 
that the Arab can scarce make good his footing. Another day you plunge 
for miles knee-deep in loose suffocating sand-drifts, ever changing and 
threatening to bury you when you halt. Sometimes a hard pebbly surface 
permits a canter for hours over the level plain amidst dwarf, leafless, dust- 
coloured shrubs. Perhaps, on surmounting a ridge, the mirage of a vast 
lake glittering in the sunshine excites both the horse and his rider. On, 
on, gallops the wiry little steed over sand hard and crisp, and coated with 
a delicate crust of saltpetre, the deposit of the water, which at rare inter- 
vals has accumulated there, and formed the Chotts and Sebkhas of the 
Desert.” Here, in such dreary solitudes, the little Desert-Chat may be 
‘seen hopping restlessly amongst the sand, or, when alarmed, flying off to 
some considerable distance out of danger and away from intrusion. It is 
often seen sitting quietly on the edge of the drifts, and, as their crumbling 
sides give way, appears to search for its sustenance amongst the falling 
sand. 
The habits of this bird appear much to resemble those of the Common 
Wheatear. It possesses the same characteristic drooping flight, and, as 
in the well-known bird of our own islands, its tail is ever in jerking motion, 
accompanied by a slight shaking of the wings. Sometimes it will perch 
on a little stunted bush in the desert, or on the banks of fields or mud- 
walls of gardens, and more frequently on a stone. Here it utters its short 
and pleasing song, which is said to be given forth both in the summer and 
winter months. In the rainy season they collect in small flocks, and 
wander about the country in company with allied species. 
The food of the Desert-Wheatear is, like that of other Chats, composed 
of small insects, picked up amongst the sand or, at times, when flutter- 
mg in the air; and Messrs. Dickson and Ross also record it as feeding on 
ants. 
Of the habits of the Desert-Chat during the breeding-season but little 
is known. Its nest is said, by ornithologists who have met with it, to 
resemble that of the Black-throated Chat, and is placed on the ground, 
sometimes in the shelter of a bush or in a fissure of the rocks, or not 
unfrequently in the walls of wells. Canon Tristram also reports it as 
building its nest in burrows. Eggs of this bird are very rare in collec- 
VOL. I. x 
