LUSCINIDJ2. 103 



Measurements of a male and a female : 



Male. Female. 



in. lin. in lin. 



Entire length 53 4 10 



Length of folded wing ...27 27 



tarsus 10 11 



middle toe .... 6 06 



tail 20 1 10 



bill 09 09 



[The South- African Stonechat appears only to differ from the 

 European Pratincola rubecola in the greater clearness of its 

 general colouring when adult, especially in the males, and in the 

 somewhat greater extent of the white patch on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts, together with the absence of any rufous tint 

 from the white feathers in the centre of the abdomen and from 

 the under tail-coverts. ED.] 



129. Saxicola familiaris, Steph. Familiar Wheatear. 



Le Traquet familier, Levaillant's Ois.d'Afr. pi. 183. 

 Saxicola familiaris, Stephen's Gen. Zool. vol. xiii. p. 241. 

 Erythropygia Galtoni, Strickland & Sclater, Birds Damar., Cont. 



Orn. 1852, p. 147. 



Saxicola sperata, Chapman's Travels in S. Afr., App. p. 398. 

 Aedon familiaris, Gray's Hand-list of Birds, No. 2980. 

 Aedon Galtoni, ibid., No. 2986. 

 Saxicola familiaris, Sharpe's Cat. No. 249. 



This is the most common Saxicola with which I am 

 acquainted both in Damara and Namaqua Land, from 

 whence it ranges southward along the west coast as far as 

 Table Mountain. It is very familiar in its manners, and 

 will fearlessly approach human habitations, which it not 

 unfrequently enters by the doors and windows. 



It invariably perches on low bushes, whence it watches 

 for passing insects, which it usually seizes on the wing,, 

 though it occasionally descends to the ground for a simi- 

 lar purpose. 



