28 Col. R. Meinertzliagen on Birds from [Ibis, 



Female. Chin and throat white in contrast to the rufous 

 breast. Under parts pale chestnut, with a white patch in the 

 centre of the abdomen. 



The neighbourhood of Cape Town and Namaqualand. 



Saxicola torquata robusta. 



Pratincola robusta Tristram, Ibis, 1870, p. 497 : " Mysore " 

 in error. I cite terra typica as Natal. 



Pratincola t. orientalis Sclater, Ibis, 1911, p. 409 ; Umfo- 

 losi, Zululiind. 



Male. Upper parts as in salax. The chestnut on the breast 

 extends over the flanks and leaves a small indistinct patch of 

 white in the centre of the abdomen. Axillaries black broadly 

 fringed with white. 



Female. The whole of the under parts are uniform pale 

 chestnut with no white patch on the abdomen and closely 

 resemble the under parts of salax. Throat not so dark as in 

 salax, but not whitish as in torquata. 



Southern and eastern Cape Colony, Knysna, Port Eliza- 

 beth, Pondoland, Natal, Zululand, Transvaal, Lake Ngami 

 in Bechuanalaud, Mashonaland, southern Angola and Nyasa- 

 land to the north end of Lake Nyasa. 



Wing of 18 c? (^ 68-75, culmen 14-14-0 mm. 



I have examined the type of Pratincola rohusta. The bird 

 is an adult male in worn plumage. On the original label is 

 " Mysore." Tristram's description is misleading, as the 

 abdomen is white and not red (Tristram says ""' ahdomine rufo 

 nee alhido "). The specimen most closely resembles orientalis 

 but is slightly larger, having a wing of 76 mm. and a culmen 

 of 15'5 mm. 



The bird is far removed from any palsearctic race, as 

 was realized by Gates (Fauna Brit. India, ii. p. 58)^ who 

 also examined the type of Tristram's robusta and thought it 

 identical with the larger [sic) Bush-Chat of Madagascar, in 

 which opinion Sharpe and Tristram concurred. Gates goes 

 on to say that there are two Bush-Chats in Madagascar, 

 agreeing in coloration but differing in size. This is again 

 most confusing, for in the first place there is only one Bush- 



