BIEDS OF EGYPT. 75 



Male in breeding-plumage. — Foreliead and eyebrows wliite ; J^ / 

 top of the head, nape and back of the neck pale brown, 

 inchuing to sandy on the back and scapulars ; rump, tail- 

 coverts and base of the tail white, remainder of the tail dark 

 brown ; wings dark brown ; secondaries and some of the 

 wing-coverts edged with white. Throat and sides of the 

 neck black, remainder of the underparts cream-colour, faintly 

 shaded with rufous on the chest ; beak and legs black ; irides 

 brown. 



Winter plumage. — Feathers of the throat broadly edged 

 with white, and pale edgings to all the feathers on the wing. 



Entire length 6 inches; culmen 0'5 ; wing, carpus to tip, 

 3'5 ; tarsus 1. 



Fig. Temm. P. C. 359. 



17. Saxicola homochroa, Trist. 



I have a female specimen, shot by myself at Assouan on 

 the 15th of April, which I have compared with a bird in 

 Mr. E. C. Taylor's collection, killed by him near Cairo in 

 January, and determined for him by Canon Tristram, the 

 original describer of the species (Ibis, 1859, p. 59). 



These specimens only differ from S. deserti in the same 

 points as some females of S. stapazina differ from the males 

 of that species, and are similar to them in their habits and in 

 being residents in Egypt and Nubia. In my opinion the 

 absence of a black throat simply arises from the age or sex of 

 the specimen, and not from any specific difference. I have, 

 however, separated this form from 8. deserti in deference to 

 Canon Tristram's opinion. 



