SAXICOLA MCESTA 43 



with rufescent, and a certain admixture of sandy-grey; under tail-coverts 

 pale rufescent. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill and feet brown. 



Total length 6-50 inches, wing 3-40, culmen -65, tar.-3us 1-10. 



The young of this species, when a few weeks old, resemble the adult 

 birds in the distribution of colouring, but this is less intense, and less 

 clearly defined. Even at an early age the males are distinguishable from 

 the females by their darker and greyer plumage, the latter being lighter 

 and browner. My collection contains young birds in various stages of 

 plumage, from nestlings to almost full-grown birds. 



Observations. — The winter plumage of both sexes is duller than the 

 spring one, and the crown of the male bird instead of being white is then 

 grey. There appears to be a certain amount of variation in the colouring 

 of the female, some examples being more rufous than others, though 

 obtained in the same season. Whether this is due to age, or is merely 

 individual variation, I am not able to say. 



Kegarding this handsome Chat little, if anything, appears to have 

 been known until Canon Tristram, meeting with it in Algeria in 

 18-59, and thinking it a new species, described it as such under the 

 name of Saxicola jyliilothamna, publishing at the same time some 

 interesting notes respecting the bird's habits and mode of life (Ibis, 

 18-59, pp. 58 and 299). As specimens of this species from Egypt 

 already existed in the Berlin Museum under the name of Saxicola 

 mcesta, Licht., Tristram's name has had to give way to the older one 

 and sink into a synonym. 



So far as is at present known, the range of S. ma'sta extends 

 throughout the semi-desert regions of North Africa from the Algerian 

 Sahara on the west to the Lybian Desert on the east, and possibly 

 through the latter region into Egypt. 



The species also occurs in Palestine, and not improbably throughout 

 a considerable part of Syria and Arabia, as also perhaps in Persia. 



Curiously enough, although the type specimen of <S'. mwsta comes 

 from Egypt, recent travellers in that country have failed entirely to 

 meet with the species there, although discovering a somewhat closely 

 allied Chat, S. xanthoprymna, Hemp, and Ehr., the range of which 

 appears to be confined to North-east Africa. Two other closely allied 

 species occur in Persia, S. chrijsopygia, De Fil, and S. cummingi, 

 Whit., the latter of which is so rare that only one specimen of it is 

 known to exist. This is in the British Museum collection, and was 

 obtained by Mr. W. D. Gumming at Fao on the Persian Gulf. Mr. 



