THE CHATS 1653 



as the cock bird kept up an incessant shrieking noise, with his body elongated, and 

 his beak turned up to the ceiling, for fully half an hour beforehand, and for quite 

 ten minutes afterward. On Sunday the sixteenth of June the hen spent the whole 

 day in carrying up hay to a large, deep box, nailed against the wall near to the ceil- 

 ing, and on the surface of this she formed a saucer-shaped depression, in which 

 shortly afterward she laid three eggs; while sitting she was fed by the cock bird, but 

 whenever he gave her an insect she invariably left the nest to eat it. In thirteen 

 days the eggs hatched, and t\vo days later two of the young birds were carried out 

 dead; the third bird was safely reared, and molted into his adult plumage toward 

 the end of August. The young bird left the nest when twenty-three days old. I 

 had been led to suppose that he would resemble the hen; but, in addition to his 

 greatly inferior size and spotted breast, he was altogether of a far more cinereous 

 tint. In about eight or ten days he was perfectly able to feed himself." These 

 bluebirds preferred to feed their young upon insects, which they invariably swal- 

 lowed and disgorged several times before carrying them to the young. The adult 

 male has the head and upper parts deep azure blue; the throat, breast, and sides of 

 the body chestnut, and the lower parts white; while the female is blue, mixed and 

 obscured with reddish brown. 



Occupying an intermediate position between the robins and the true 



thrushes, the chats (Saxicola] form a second subfamily characterized 

 by possessing a strong bill and well-developed rictal bristles; the wing is pointed and 

 equal to the tail, and the metatarsus and foot are adapted to their desert-loving 

 habits. Resembling the fly-catchers in the mode of taking their insect prey, the 

 chats differ from other small birds by their frequent vibration of the tail when perch- 

 ing and running. They are most strongly represented on the African continent, five 

 species inhabiting North Africa, while six are peculiar to the south of the Ethiopian 

 region, and five others inhabit Abyssinia and Nubia. Eight belong to the European 

 avifauna, while four species breed only in Persia, and another four in Turkestan. 

 The wheatear, which may be considered the best-known form of the genus, has a 

 straight bill, broadest at the base and slightly curved toward the extremity; the legs 

 and bill being black, and the metatarsus not scutellated. The bastard-primary 

 feather is small, and the wings are comparatively flat and pointed. In all the more 

 typical species, the rump, upper tail coverts, and the base of the tail are pure white 

 in both sexes; the tail consisting of twelve feathers of nearly equal length. The rus- 

 set chat (Saxicola melanoleuca] breeds in Italy, Greece, South Russia, and Palestine; 

 the western form summering in Morocco, Algiers, Spain, and the south of France. 

 The isabelline chat (S. isabellina] breeds in Asia Minor, South Russia, and Siberia, 

 and has been obtained in Madagascar; while the Indian desert chat (S. deserti} 

 passes the summer in the cultivated districts of Turkestan, wintering in Northwest 

 and Central India. 



One of the earliest of the many migrants that traverse the length 



and breadth of Europe during their annual migrations is the common 

 wheatear (S. cenanthe), so well known in most parts of the British Isles. Arriving 

 in March and April, the wheatear is both a moorland and maritime species. Many 

 may be seen on a Scotch grouse moor or any sheep farm in the north of England, 



