THE BLACK-THROATED CHAT. 307 



SAXICOLA STAPAZINA (Vieillot, nee Dresser). 



THE BLACK-THROATED CHAT. 



(PLATE 9.) 



Ficedula vitiflora rufa ( cJ nee $ ), Briss. Orn. iii. p. 459 (1760). 



Muscicapa melanoleuca, Giild. Nov. Com. Petr. xix. p. 468, pL xv. (1775, Western 

 form). 



Motacilla stapazina (Linn.)* ( rf nee $ ), apud Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 966 (1788) ; et 

 auctorum plurimorum (Temminck),(Meyer), ( Gould), (Keyserling), (Blasius), 

 (Nordmawi), (Ruppett), (Deglatid), (Gerbe), (Bonaparte), (Cabanis), (Heuglin), 

 (Tristram), (Lindermeyer), (Newton), (Filippi), (Doderlein), ( Gray), (Fritsch), 

 (Salvador*), (Gould), (Jaubert), (Locke), (Irby), &c., &c., &c., nee Dresser, nee 

 Blanford. 



Sylvia stapazina (Ltnn.) (J nee $ ), apud Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 530 (1790). 



Vitiflora rufa (<$ nee $), Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. x. p. 569 (1817). 



(Enanthe stapazina (Linn.), apud Vieill. N. Diet. a" Hist. Nat. xxi. p. 425 (1818). 



Saxicola stapazina (Linn.), apud Temm. Man. d"Orn. i. p. 239 (1820). 



Vitiflora stapazina (Linn.), apud Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 552. 



Saxicola xanthomelaena, Hempr. et Ehr. Symb. Phys., Aves, fol. aa (1833, autumn 

 plumage of Eastern form). 



Saxicola eurymelaena, Hempr. et Ehr. Symb. Phys., Aves, foL bb (1833, summer 

 plumage of Eastern form). 



Saxicola albicilla, von Jtfiill. Naumannia, 1851, p. 28 (Eastern form). 



Saxicola rufa (Brehm), Blanf. $ Dresser, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 221 ( Western form). 



Saxicola melanoleuca (Guld.), Blanf. $ Dresser, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 222 ( Western 

 form). 



The Black-throated Chat is divided into two forms, which have been 

 specifically separated by Brehm, Blanford, and Dresser. Although the 

 difference between them is so slight, yet, as their geographical distribu- 

 tion coincides with it, it is best, perhaps, to afford them subspecific rank, 

 and regard them as imperfectly segregated subspecies or varieties. The 

 one form, Saxicola stapazina, breeds in the south of France, Spain, 

 Western Algiers, and Morocco, and winters in Western Africa ; the other, 

 Saxicola stapazina, var. melanoleuca, breeds in Greece, South Russia, Asia 

 Minor, Palestine, and South Persia, passes through Egypt and Nubia on 

 migration, and probably winters in Central Africa. 



One would naturally expect to find a bird breeding in Western Europe 

 occasionally straggling to the British Islands ; but it was a specimen of 



* The Motacilla stapazina of Linnaeus is undoubtedly the Eared Chat, S. aurita (without 

 the black throat), though there cannot be any reasonable doubt that Linnaeus considered 

 the latter speties the female of the bird which has generally been called S. stapazina, 

 inasmuch as he refers to Brisson and Edwards, who both asserted this to be the case. 

 According to the British- Association rules, Linnaeus's name must stand for the Eared Chat, 

 or lapse altogether for want of clear definition. 



x2 



