1922.] the Near East and Tropical East Africa. 23 



chestnut. Axillaries black with much narrower white 

 fringes than in rubicola or hibernans. 



Female. Generally paler above and below than in indica 

 or stejnegeri, and more as in rubicola. 



Wing of males 69-77, culmen 13 mm. 



Central and southern Urals, where it appears to meet 

 indica, Astrachan and northern Caucasus, and in south-west 

 Persia near Shiraz. 



Winters in north-east Africa, southern Arabia, Abyssinia, 

 northern Somaliland, the Sudan, and on the Red Sea. A 

 few appear to winter at Basra, at the head of the Persian 

 Gulf. No Palestioe record, and is but an occasional straggler 

 to Egypt. 



Saxicola torquata rubicola. 



Alotacilla rubicola Linupeus, Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, 

 p. 332 : Europe. 



Male. Upper tail-coverts white with a few dark brown 

 streaks. Base of tail black. Axillaries black with narrow 

 white fringes. Under parts with the chestnut usually con- 

 fined to the breast ; abdomen white, but occasionally birds 

 have the whole lower parts washed with chestnut as in 

 hibernans. 



Female. Under parts as in maura or slightly darker. 



Wing of males 64 to 70, culmen 14-15 mm. 



Birds from Crete have culmens up to 17 mm. Birds from 

 north-west Africa aj)pear to lose the brown edging to the 

 feathers of the upper parts quicker than others from conti- 

 nental Europe, and therefore in comparing birds of the same 

 dates from these localities, those from north-v^est Africa 

 appear blacker ; but in fresh autumn plumage there is no 

 difference. (See also Harlert, J. f. 0. 1910, p. 173.) 



Continental Europe from southern Sweden and Norway, 

 where it is rare. In Germany it is more plentiful in 

 the west than in the north. Very rare in Pomerania. 

 Breeds in Poland, absent from Finland and northern Russia 

 but in central and southern Russia it a[)parently breeds east 

 to about the Volga Valley. Throughout southern Europe 



