a 
308 BRITISH BIRDS. 
the Eastern race that paid our shores its hurried and fatal visit. It is 
worthy of remark that on Heligoland far more stragglers from South- 
eastern Europe than from South-western Europe occur. Its capture was 
first recorded in ‘ Science Gossip’ for October 1878, by Mr. R. Davenport, 
of Bury, Lancashire, who writes :—“ It is a pleasing duty to me to record 
the taking of a very beautiful specimen of what I consider an exceedingly 
rare bird in our neighbourhood (Saxicola stapazina). The specimen was 
shot by a friend of mine, about the middle of May this year, on the margin 
of the Bury and Radcliffe Reservoir; and though much mangled with 
number-6 shot, it has been very well mounted indeed by my friend 
Johnson, of Prestwick. Considering the condition it was in from being 
killed with such large shot, I really doubted at one time whether it could 
be mounted ; however, it has been ; and a valuable addition to our list of 
birds it is.’ I had an opportunity of examining this specimen when it 
was exhibited at the second November meeting of the Zoological Society 
in 1878. It appeared to be an adult in full plumage. At the following 
meeting of the Society (P.Z.S. 1878, p. 977), Mr. Sclater read a letter 
with enclosures from Mr. R. Davenport, of Bury, fully confirming the 
capture of this interesting bird. It was shot by Mr. David Page, of Bury, 
on or about the 8th of May, 1875, whilst sitting on the ridge of the out- 
J 
buildings belonging to the Bury Angling Association near the reservoir. 
It was taken in the flesh to Mr. Wright Johnson, of Prestwick, to be 
mounted; and by him the sex was determined, by dissection, to be a 
male. 
The Black-throated Chat and its ally, the Black-eared Chat, are two of 
the commonest birds in Greece and Asia Minor ; and I am not exaggerating 
when I say that I have thrown away hundreds of their eggs which the 
Greek peasant boys have brought me, because it was absolutely impossible 
to identify the species unless they caught the bird on the nest, which they 
were very clever in doing. They are both summer birds of passage to 
Asia Minor, arriving there about the third week in March. They evidently 
lose no time in pairing, and set about building their nests soon after their 
arrival, for when I crossed the mountains behind Smyrna on the 2nd of 
June they appeared all to have young. They were especially abundant on 
the edge of the cultivated ground between the rocky cliffs and the vine- 
yards. The weather was so hot that on our arrival at Nymphi we did not 
do much climbing, but preferred to skirt the base of the mountains just 
high enough to eatch a little of the sea-breeze, which fortunately sets in 
towards the land soon after noon aud slightly alleviates the heat of the 
broiling sun overhead. This sort of borderland is half rock and half 
jungle, with here and there an old olive tree or a small cluster of pines. 
On the bushes and the luxuriant, though somewhat parched, herbs that — 
towered up above the vegetation at their feet, the Black-throated Chat was 
