308 BRITISH BIRDS. 



the Eastern race that paid our shores its hurried and fatal visit. It is 

 worthy of remark that on Heligoland far more stragglers from South- 

 eastern Europe than from South-western Europe occur. Its capture was 

 first recorded in ' Science Gossip ' for October 1878, by Mr. R. Davenport, 

 of Bury, Lancashire, who writes : " It is a pleasing duty to me to record 

 the taking of a very beautiful specimen of what I consider an exceedingly 

 rare bird in our neighbourhood (Saxicola stapazina). The specimen was 

 shot by a friend of mine, about the middle of May this year, on the margin 

 of the Bury and Radcliffe Reservoir; and though much mangled with 

 number-6 shot, it has been very well mounted indeed by my friend 

 Johnson, of Prestwick. Considering the condition it was in from being 

 killed with such large shot, I really doubted at one time whether it could 

 be mounted ; however, it has been ; and a valuable addition to our list of 

 birds it is." I had an opportunity of examining this specimen when it 

 was exhibited at the second November meeting of the Zoological Society 

 in 1878. It appeared to be an adult in full plumage. At the following 

 meeting of the Society (P.Z. S. 1878, p. 977), Mr. Sclater read a letter 

 with enclosures from Mr. R. Davenport, of Bury, fully confirming the 

 capture of this interesting bird. It was shot by Mr. David Page, of Bury, 

 on or about the 8th of May, 1875, whilst sitting on the ridge of the out- 

 buildings belonging to the Bury Angling Association near the reservoir. 

 It was taken in the flesh to Mr. Wright Johnson, of Prestwick, to be 

 mounted; and by him the sex was determined, by dissection, to be a 

 male. 



The Black-throated Chat and its ally, the Black-eared Chat, are two of 

 the commonest birds in Greece and Asia Minor ; and I am not exaggerating 

 when I say that I have thrown away hundreds of their eggs which the 

 Greek peasant boys have brought me, because it was absolutely impossible 

 to identify the species unless they caught the bird on the nest, which they 

 were very clever in doing. They are both summer birds of passage to 

 Asia Minor, arriving there about the third week in March. They evidently 

 lose no time in pairing, and set about building their nests soon after their 

 arrival, for when I crossed the mountains behind Smyrna on the 2nd of 

 June they appeared all to have young. They were especially abundant on 

 the edge of the cultivated ground between the rocky cliffs and the vine- 

 yards. The weather was so hot that on our arrival at Nymphi we did not 

 do much climbing, but preferred to skirt the base of the mountains just 

 high enough to catch a little of the sea-breeze, which fortunately sets in 

 towards the land soon after noon and slightly alleviates the heat of the 

 broiling sun overhead. This sort of borderland is half rock and half 

 jungle, with here and there an old olive tree or a small cluster of pines. 

 On the bushes and the luxuriant, though somewhat parched, herbs that 

 towered up above the vegetation at their feet, the Black-throated Chat was 



