76 Count T. Salvadori on the 



using his name, but that is not the case. Motacilla stapa- 

 zina is certainly the white-throated bird or Black-eared 

 Wheatear. 



Linne's description is as follows: — " M[otacilla] ferru- 

 ginea, area oculorum alls caudaque fuscis, rectricibns extirais 

 latere albis. Habitat in Hispania, Italia." 



The first reference given by Linne is (Enanthe altera 

 Aldr. orn. 2, p. 763; and turning to Aldrovandi we find 

 (/. c), besides a good description"";, an unmistakable figure 

 of the Black-eared Wheatear with the white throat. 



What do we want more than this to identify Motacilla 

 stapazina with the Black-eared Wheatear ? Therefore 

 Saxicola .stapazina (Linn.) is the proper name of the species 

 which has been named Vitiflora rufa by Stephens, (Enanthe 

 albicolUs by Vieillot, Saxicola aurita by Temminck, and 

 Sylvia rufescens by Savi. 



Mr. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe' (vol. ii. pp. 203, 207), 

 has already shown that the Black-eared Wheatear should 

 stand as S. stapazina, but as regards the Russet Wheatear 

 with black throat I think that the name Saxicola rufa 

 (C. L. Brehm, 1831) used by him is not the proper one, the 

 same name having been employed in 1818 by Stephens for 

 the Black-eared Wheatear t- This was the reason why, in 

 1886, in my "Elenco degli uccelli Italiani - " (Ann. Mus. Civ. 

 Gen. (2) iii. p. 116), I proposed for the Western Russet 

 Wheatear the name of Saxicola occidentalis. 



Dr. Sharpe, in the volume already quoted, has made 

 several mistakes as regards the names and synonymy of the 

 two species under consideration. 



Failing to recognise that the Linneau name stapazina 

 belonged to the Black-eared Wheatear, which he calls S. albi- 

 colUs (Vieill.), he has wrongly included stapazina (Linn.) 



* " . . . . capite, collo, dorso, alarum pennis minoribus, pectore et ventre 

 ex ruffo flavescens (sic), dorso intensius, pectore remissius, oculis nigris, 

 retro qttos macula est oblonga etiam nigra, figura quodanmiodo semi- 

 lunari . . . ." 



+ " V[itiflora] ferruginea, alis fuscis, area oculorum caudaque nigris, 

 rectricibus extimis Latere albis." ( . . . . space round the eyes and the tail 

 black, and the sides of the outer tail-feathers white.) 



