334 Messrs. Butler, Feilden, and Reid on the 



to whom reference must be made by any one studying this 

 question. Let us take them in order of priority. 



In the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1874 

 Messrs. Blanford and Dresser published a most important 

 monograph of the genus, though they modestly termed it in 

 their introductory paragraph " an attempt to reduce to some- 

 thing like order the excessively confused nomenclature of 

 the species composing it.^' In this they express a certain 

 want of confidence as to their determination of the South- 

 African Saxicola, especially as regards S. monticola and its 

 allies, and they include several species which their successors 

 have since regarded as phases of S. monticola and S. leuco- 

 meleena, Burch. These we shall mention presently. 



Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, in his new edition of Layard^s 

 ' Birds of South Africa/ writing in 1877, considers the S. 

 atmorii of Tristram (Ibis, 1869, p. 206) and the S. griseiceps 

 of Messrs. Blanford and Dresser (P. Z. S. 1874, p. 233) to 

 be referable to S. leucomelcBna, but retains S. diluta, B. & D. 

 (P. Z. S. 1874, p. 234), and S. castor, Hartl., as distinct 

 species. He, however, states his impression that S. diluta 

 is the adult female of S. leucomelana, and allows that a 

 larger series of birds is requisite for a final decision of the 

 question. 



The third and latest authority, Mr. H. Seebohm, in vol. v. 

 of the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' lately 

 published, makes S. diluta a synonym of S. leucomelcsna and 

 S. castor one of S. monticola, thus reducing the limits of the 

 question still further and leaving S. leucomelana and >S^. mon- 

 ticola as the extremes, connected by forms produced by 

 their interbreeding. This arrangement he characterizes, 

 nevertheless, as hypothetical, and says (at p. 377), "These 

 two South-African Chats and their intermediate forms are 

 involved in the greatest obscurity.'^ So we may still look 

 upon the exact definition of the species as unsettled, and 

 may venture to offer what little information we have lately 

 acquired for future consideration. This information we may 

 sum up briefly as follows : — 



The females of >S. monticola do not vary in plumage; the 



