SAXICOLA. 297 



Genus SAXICOLA. 



The genus Saxicola was established by Bechstein in 1802, in his ' Orni- 

 thologisches Taschenbuch/ i. p. 216. He did not indicate any type; and 

 his genus included the Whinchat and the Stonechat ; but as these two species 

 were removed in 1816 by Koch in his ' System der baierischen Zoologie/ 

 p. 191, and placed in the genus Pratincola, S. cenanthe is left as the type of 

 Bechstein's genus. The Chats may be distinguished by their black legs and 

 by the colour of the rump, upper tail-coverts, and the base of the tail, which 

 in typical species are white, whilst in the few aberrant species where these 

 parts are RuticiUine in colour the proportion between the culmen and the 

 tail serves to distinguish them : in the Redstarts the tail is more than, 

 four times the length of the culmen ; in the Chats it is less. 



The genus contains about thirty species, and is principally confined to 

 the ^Ethiopian Region and the southern portion of the Palsearctic Region. 

 Six species are peculiar to South Africa ; five more to Nubia and Abyssinia. 

 Six species inhabit North Africa, of which the range of three extends to 

 Palestine and the remaining two to Turkestan. Eight species are European, 

 of which the range of three extends to Persia, one to Turkestan, two -to 

 China, and oue to the coasts of Greenland and North America. Four 

 species breed only in Persia, and four only in Turkestan. In the British 

 Islands one species is a common summer visitor, whilst two others are 

 very rare stragglers. 



The Chats or "U'heatears are birds allied to the Bush-Chats on the one 

 hand and the Redstarts on the other. Unlike these birds, however, they 

 frequent open ground, rocky mountain-sides, cultivated plains, and dry 

 and arid deserts. They perch freely on rocks and stones, but are rarely 

 seen in the branches of trees. Their powers of song are somewhat limited. 

 Their food consists largely of worms and insects, the latter sometimes 

 being obtained whilst the bird is hovering in the air. They build loose- 

 made nests of dry grass, hair, feathers, &c., placed in holes either in the 

 ground or in walls or rocks ; and their eggs, from five to six in number, 

 are blue, sparingly marked with pale reddish brown. 



