310 Mr. D. A. Bannernian on the [Ibis, 



CEnanthe stapazina stapazina^. Western Black-eared 

 Wlieatcar. 



MotaciUa stapazhia Liuii. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, p. 331 

 — Type locality : Spain. 



A Rare Visitor to the Canaries. 



I only know of one example having been obtained in the 

 Archipelago. 



Von Thanner shot a male Western Black-eared Wheatear 

 in Tenerife on the 21st of February, 1903, and this 

 specimen I have examined in the Tring Museum. It is 

 a beautiful skin and the bird is in very perfect plumage. 



This occurrence of the Western Black-eared Wheatear in 

 the Canaries was first recorded by Tschusi in the Orn. Jahrb. 

 1903, p. 176, where he alluded to the above-mentioned 

 specimen, naming it Saxicohi anritu, which is a synonym of 

 (Enanthe stapazina stapazina f. 



The same example is mentioned by Polatzek in his paper 

 (Orn. Jahrb. 1909, p. 125) also under the name >§. aurita 

 Temra, 



Range. The Western Black-eared Wheatear breeds in 

 south-west Enrope, in Portugal, Spain, and in north-west 

 Africa. It is apparently a bird of passage in the Vvfistern 

 Sahara south to Senegal. 



* If we consider the Western Black-eared Wheatear {(Encmftie 

 stapazina) and the Western Black-throated Wheatear ((Enanthe occiden- 

 talis) to be dimorphisms of the same species, we can then use the name 

 CEnanthe hisjyanica (Linn.), as is done by Hartert, for both forms. But 

 if we consider these two varieties to be distinct and separate species 

 (which is the view taken by the B. O. U. Committee who drew up the 

 List of British Birds, 1915) and not dimorphisms of the same species, we 

 cannot use the name hispanica, for the reasons clearly set forth in the 

 .B. O. U. List, p. 369. 



I have not yet formed my own conclusions on this much debated 

 question, and, in the meantime, while preserving- an open mind on the 

 subject, I temporarily follow the Committee in their ruling and call the 

 bird which von Thanner obtained in the Canary Islands (Enanthe stapazina 

 stapazina, as it is an example of the Western YMsick-eared Wheatear. 



t Hartert considers both aurita and stapazina synonyms of hispanica, 

 as he believes the Black-eared and Blnck-throated varieties to be 

 dimorphic. 



