^GITHINA. 



and Dresser ', P. Z. S. 1874, p, 229 ; Dresser, B. Eur. pi. xxviii. 1874 j 

 j0j/. Pers. ii. p. 147 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vol. v. p. 400. Motacilla 

 stapazina, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso, As. i. p. 474 ; ex. Willoughby nee. Motacilla 

 stapazina, Lin. Saxicola saltator, Menet. Cat. Rais< Cauc. p. 30 ; Severtz, 

 Jevotn. Turkest. p. 65. Saxicola cenanthe (Linn.) apud. Jerd. B. Ind. ii. 

 p. 132; Hume, Str. F. i. pp. 45, 48, 187; vii. pp. 57, 95, 112; Murray, 

 Hdbk., ZooLj 8fc., Sind, p. 148. The WHEATEAR. 



Adult Male. Head, neck, back, and scapulars sandy brown. A stripe from 

 the nostrils, above the eye as a supercilium ; the nape white or buffy white, a 

 narrow black stripe below this from the gape to the eye ; chin buffy white ; 

 throat, breast, and belly pale buff, darker on the breast ; rump and upper tail 

 coverts white ; under tail coverts also white, tinged with buffy ; primaries, 

 their coverts, secondaries and tertiaries brown, margined on their outer webs 

 with whitish or buffy white ; the secondaries (in all Sind specimens) tipped 

 with whitish ; wing coverts brown, margined with pale rufescent brown ; ear 

 coverts rufescent brown ; tail white, the terminal half of the central feathers 

 and about one-third of the others dark brown ; axillariesand under wing coverts 

 white ; bill and legs black ; irides light brown. 



Length. 6'5 to 675 inches ; wing 3-75 to 4; tail 275. 



Had. Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Beloochistan, Persia, Afghanistan, 

 Eastern Turkistan, Cashmere, Palestine, Abyssinia, Thibet and North China. 

 Breeds in Asia Minor; winters in Sind, N. W. -Provinces, Punjab, Egypt, Nubia 

 and Abyssinia. Occurs also in Kutch, Jodhpore, Deccan, Kattiawar and 

 North Guzerat. 



Family. TIMELIID.E. 

 Sub-family. BRACHYPODIN^:. 



Rictal bristles scanty or numerous, generally strong; tarsi short, not longer 

 than the length of the bill measured from the gape ; legs and feet strong 

 and short ; wings moderate ; bill variable, more or less wide and depressed 

 at base. 



Gen. .aSgitirina. Vieill. 



Bill moderate ; culmen shorter than the tarsus, somewhat compressed, 

 slightly curved and hooked at the tip ; rictal bristles scanty, not extending 

 beyond the hind edge of the nostrils, which are apert ; wing short and 

 rounded ; 4th, 5th, and 6th quills generally sub-equal and longest ; tail even 

 and short ; tarsi short, scutellate. 



This genus contains three good species, i.e., ^E. viridissima, tiphia and nigro- 

 lutea, and twice as many races. Mr. Hume, in Stray Feathers, 1877, p. 423, 

 and Mr. Sharpe, in B. M. Cat., have both exhaustively treated the subject ; and 

 so far, Mr. Sharpe, the latest writer, says that Mr. Hume's conclusions with 

 regard to sE. tiphia and its races are thoroughly borne out by the series of 



