Mr Dcdgleish on Saxicola deserti, the Desert Chat. 65 



its occurrence on the coasts and islands of the Eed Sea, as far 

 south even as the Gulf of Aden. It has been obtained in the 

 peninsula of Sinai, and Canon Tristram secured specimens in 

 the month of January on the shores of the Dead Sea. In 

 Persia it has been observed by several naturalists, including 

 St John and Blanford, the latter of whom states that it is 

 common in winter on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the 

 coasts of Baluchistan, and in summer is found breeding in 

 considerable numbers on the upper grounds in Southern 

 Persia. The naturalists who accompanied the expedition to 

 Yarkand found it near Kashgar early in April, where it ap- 

 peared to have newly arrived from the warmer deserts to the 

 south-east. Dr J. Scully has also recorded it as common in 

 the plains of Kashgaria, at elevations of 4500 feet, and in 

 some portions of the hills, even up to that of 12,300 feet, 

 where he considers it probably breeds in June and July. 

 Severtzoff found it breeding in Turkestan, and it occurs on 

 the eastern shores of the Caspian. 



In India it occurs during the cold season over all the north- 

 west portion of the country, in the upper provinces, the 

 Punjab, Eajpootana (where Captain Butler records it as a 

 common winter visitant, arriving about 7th October, and 

 leaving about 1st April), and in the north-west provinces. 

 The most easterly point to which it extends, as hitherto re- 

 corded, is Nagpoor, where Mr Blanford obtained three speci- 

 mens. In habits it seems much to resemble the common 

 wheatear. Mr J. H. Gurney, jun., describes its flight as 

 " moderately swift, but not direct. Its tail is never still a 

 moment, and, as in the other wheatears, the jerking action is 

 always accompanied by a slight vibrating motion of the 

 wings." Speaking of it in his " Eambles of a Naturalist," as 

 observed by him in Egypt, he says, " a little bush, high enough 

 to raise them a few feet above the plain, is always a favourite 

 perch, or the banks of a field, or mud walls of a garden, or, in 

 default, a stone. They occasionally fly high, but seldom go far 

 without alighting." Mr A. 0. Hume, writing in " Stray 

 Feathers " of its habits and appearance in North- West India, 

 says, " the bleaker and more inhospitable the wastes that 



VOL. VI. E 



