SAXICOLA. 77 



Distribution. Has been noticed in Gilgit during the spring 

 migration in March and April. It is highly improbable that 

 Jerdon should have procured this Chat in Central India, and there 

 can be little doubt that the species recorded by him under the 

 name of S. oenanthe was S. isabellina. 



The Wheatear Chat has an immense range and migrates great 

 distances. According to season it is found over a great part of 

 Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. 



625. Saxicola isabellina. The Isabelline Chat. 



Saxicola isabellina, Cretzsclim. Rilpp. Atlas, p. 52 (1826) ; Stoliczka, 

 J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 239 ; Blanf. # Dresser, P. Z. S. 1874, 

 p. 229; Scully, S. F. iv, p. 142 ; Hume, Cat. no. 491 j Seebohm, 

 Cat. B. M. v, p. 399 ; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 444 j Barnes, Birds 

 Bom. p. 203. 



Saxicola rananthe (Linn.}, apud Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 132. 



Coloration. Male. After the autumn moult the upper plumage 

 is sandy brown, the longer feathers of the rump and the upper 

 tail-coverts white; wings dark brown, every feather with a fulvous 

 margin and tip, the margins broader on the secondaries and greater 

 coverts ; middle pair of tail-feathers with basal third white, re- 

 maining two-thirds black ; the other tail-feathers with rather more 

 than the basal half white, and remainder black, and all of them 

 tipped narrowly with white ; a white supercilium from the nostrils 

 to the end of the ear-coverts ; lores black ; ear- coverts fulvous- 

 brown ; chin whitish ; whole lower plumage buff ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries fulvous. In summer the margins of the wing- 

 feathers are much reduced in breadth. 



Female. Hardly differs from the male, but has the lores generally 

 paler. 



Legs and feet black ; bill black ; iris brown (Hume). 



Length about 7; tail 2'3 to 2-6 ; wing 3'6 to 4 ; tarsus 1-15 to 

 1*25 ; bill from gape *8 to *9. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the plains of India from the 

 Punjab south to Ahmednagar and east to Chuuar and Benares, 

 which are the extreme limits of this species as indicated by the 

 specimens I have examined. This Chat breeds and passes the 

 summer in Turkestan, Afghanistan. Baluchistan, and Persia, and 

 passes throught Gilgit in the spring and autumn. It has a very 

 wide range, extending to South-east Europe and North-east Africa 

 on the one side, and to the east of Asia on the other. 



Habits, #c. Breeds in Afghanistan, according to Barnes, in 

 March, and in Turkestan, according to Scully, in April and May, 

 but neither the nest nor eggs have yet been taken in these 

 countries. 



