242 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
B. Back in the males cinerous. - 
227. SAXICOLA CINEREA. White-rumped Grey Wheat-ear, 
The next section of Chats, according to the arrangement of the 
above-named authors, contains four species inhabiting South Africa. 
The first three have the rump white, and of these Sawicola cinerea 
and 8. polluz have the second primary emarginate at the tip. Besides 
this character, Messrs. Blanford and Dresser give the following as 
distinguishing the present bird :—“ No black mark through the eye : 
throat and breast, pale cinereous ; rump and outer edges of all the 
tail-feathers except the central pair, white.” 
Le Vaillant found this Wheat-ear in the province of Outeniqua, 
perching on bushes, always on the move from one to another, and 
very wary. In flying they expanded the tail, exposing the white ~ 
mark ; they also had the habit of opening and closing the wing, so 
peculiar to the Wheat-ears. A male is in the British Museum from 
Great Namaqua Land. 
They build at the foot of bushes on the ground. The female lays 
four bluish-green eggs, minutely speckled with brown, the specks 
sometimes forming a ring at the obtuse end: axis, 11”; diam. 8”. 
We found them abundantly at Nel’s Poort, nesting in November. 
Mr. Atmore writes of them as follows :—‘‘ Blanco, Sept. 10th, 
1864, The Rock-Chat (S. cinerea) is abundant in the Karroo;—and, 
by the way, how well this class of birds obeys the geology of the 
country: wherever there is karroo soil you find them. The same 
also with the ‘ Kalkoentje’ (Macronyx capensis), which is found in 
every patch of grass country, but never in karroo soil; for instance, 
they are plentiful here, and proceeding northwards they do not occur 
in the fifty miles of karroo you pass over on the way to Cango; but 
in that narrow valley they are again plentiful.” 
We transcribe the following description from the essay of Messrs. 
Blanford and Dresser :— 
Adult.—Upper parts to the rump brownish-cinereous; wings 
brown, the coverts and secondaries with pale edges; lower rump 
and upper tail-coverts white ; tail-feathers dark brown, the outer 
webs of all except the central pair, white, the quantity increasing on 
the outermost feathers; lower parts pale isabelline grey; chin 
whitish ; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; ear-coverts pale 
hair-brown. Culmen, 0°8; wing, 3°85; tail, 2°6; tarsus, 1°15. 
Fig. Le Vaili. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 184, fig. 1. 
