SAXICOLA STAPAZINA 25 



■white ; tail-feathers white at the base, the two central ones dark brown on 

 the terminal two-thirds, the remaining ones black on the terminal half ; 

 lores black ; a whitish stripe from the bill to the eye ; ear-coverts darkish 

 buff; chin whitish ; remainder of the underparts creamy-buff ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts white. 



Iris dark brown ; bill and feet black. 



Total length 6'50 inches, wing 4, culmen -60, tarsus 1-25. 



Adult female, similar to the male in plumage, but rather smaller. 



This is a rare species in Tunisia, apparently only occurring in the 

 more southern districts, and even there not often met with. I have 

 specimens of it, both male and female, obtained from the neighbour- 

 hood of Tatahouine, but from no other part of the Kegency. Baron v. 

 Erlanger obtained an example of the Isabelline Chat on the Djebel 

 Tfel near Gafsa, but the species is evidently rare in Tunisia, and from 

 Algeria and Marocco it seems to be as yet unrecorded. The species 

 is, indeed, an eastern one, its habitat proper being South-eastern 

 Europe, Asia Minor, North-eastern Africa, and Asia, and although 

 it has been stated to occur in Greece and other parts of Southern 

 Europe, these records apparently lack confirmation. An undoubted 

 example of the species, however, seems to have occurred in England 

 in 1887. This specimen was shot by Mr. Thomas Mann, at Allonby 

 in Cumberland, on November 11th, and was exhibited at a meeting 

 of the Zoological Society of London on December 6tb, 1887. 



I have no information regarding the breeding of the Isabelline 

 Chat in Tunisia. 



SAXICOLA STAPAZINA (Linnaeus). 

 BLACK-EARED WHEATEAE. 



Motacilla stapazina, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 331 (1766). 



(Enanthe albicolis, Vieill. Nouv. Diet, sxi, p. 424 (1818). 



Saxicola aurita, Temm. Man. d'Om.i, p. 241 (1820); Seebohm, Cat. 



Birds Brit. Mus. v, p. 394; Koenig, J.f. 0. 1888, p. 210; id. J.f. 0. 



1892, p. 416; Whitaker, Ibis, 1895, p. 92 ; Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1899, 



p. 224. 

 S. albicoUis, Lochc, ExjjI. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 205 (1867). 

 S. Yitiflora rufescens, Koe7iig, J.f. 0. 1888, p. 210. 

 S. stapazina. Dresser, Birds of Exi,rope, ii, p. 203, pi. 23 (1874) ; Sal- 



vadori, Ibis, 1904, p. 77. 



