THE PIED WHEATEAR. 441 



CENANTHE PLESCHANKA 



182. CEnanthe pleschanka pleschanka (Lepech.) THE PIED 

 WHEATEAR. 



MOTACILLA PLESCHANKA Lepechin, Nov. Comm. Petr., xiv, p. 503, pi. 14 

 (1770 or 1771 Saratow on the Volga; translation in Hase, Lepechin's 

 Reise, i, p. 229). 



Saxicola pleschanka, E. V. Baxter and L. J. Rintoul, Ann. Scot. Nat. 

 Hist., 1910, p. 2. 



The Pied Wheatear( (Enanthe p. plescfianJca). Adult male, summer. 



DESCRIPTION. Adult male. Winter. Fore-head, crown, nape and 

 hind-neck pale earth-brown, feathers with narrow paler buff tips, 

 and white bases showing here and there especially on hind-neck ; 

 mantle and scapulars black, much concealed by long brownish-buff 

 tips to feathers ; back, rump and upper tail-coverts white with 

 slight creamy tinge ; narrow line on fore-head, lores, narrow line 

 over eye, ear-coverts, sides of neck to shoulders, whole chin and 

 throat extending to upper-breast black,* feathers slightly tipped 

 creamy -white especially on lower throat ; sides of breast and inner 

 flanks (under wings) black, feathers tipped buff ; rest of under - 

 parts creamy-buff ; axillaries and under wing-coverts black slightly 

 tipped white ; tail : central pair black with about basal third 

 white, rest mostly white with about distal quarter black, f outer 

 pair with more black, extending on outer web to about half 

 length of feather ; wing-feathers black, primaries with narrow, 

 and secondaries with broader, tips and edgings of creamy to whitish- 

 buff ; primary -co verts as primaries ; greater coverts as secondaries ; 

 median and lesser coverts with narrower tips. This plumage is 



* Rarely both male and female have white throats, and the female 

 obtained on the Isle of May was of this variety, which appears to be purely 

 individual, though formerly treated as a distinct species (E. vittata. 



t Black on inner feathers is often divided and broken up by white and 

 sometimes reduced to a spot, but appears never to be entirely absent. Black 

 measured from tip of feather to its farthest extent basally is in outermost 

 feather 20-30 mm., and in 4th feather from outer a spot to 20 mm. 



