66 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



stretched away, the more at home true to his name, seemed 

 the desert wheatear." 



It seems to have been found breeding only in Algeria, and 

 in Persia, and other parts of Central Asia, visiting the plains of 

 India, as above stated, only in the winter season, to which 

 the same migratory instinct possessed by the common wheat- 

 ear, seems to lead it. It is said to have a pleasant song, 

 which is uttered even during winter. Its food is stated to be 

 small insects. Its nest is placed in similar situations to that 

 of the common wheatear, but sometimes under a bush : its 

 egg is of a light greenish-blue, with pale liver-coloured spots 

 at the large end. 



It has been remarked by naturalists that few females of 

 this and other species of Saxicolm are obtained in proportion 

 to the number of males, Mr J. H. Gurney, jun., estimating 

 the proportion in Algeria as one of the former to eight of the 

 latter. Eeferring to this fact, Mr Dresser, in his description 

 of the present species, thinks it not improbable that the 

 female may after a time assume a plumage resembling that 

 of the young male. 



The specimen which has been the occasion of the foregoing 

 remarks, and which is now on the table, was killed on 26th 

 November last, by Mr Watt, gamekeeper to Lord Balfour of 

 Burleigh. It was sitting on a stone in moorish ground, at 

 the side of Gartmorn Dam, on the property of the Earl of 

 Zetland, near Alloa, in Clackmannanshire. It fell into the 

 hands of Mr John Taylor of Alloa, who wrote to me, mention- 

 ing that he had a wheatear in his possession, the late date 

 of whose appearance he thought worthy of notice, stating at 

 the same time that the markings appeared to him different 

 from those of the common wheatear. Having asked him to 

 send it to me for examination, it has proved, on a careful 

 comparison by Mr J. A. Harvie-Brown and myself, with 

 skins from Egypt and India,* to be a specimen of Saxicola 

 deserti (Eiipp.), the desert chat or wheatear. It is a male in 

 autumn plumage, at which period the feathers of the throat, 

 which in summer are of a jet black colour, begin to be edged 

 by a creamy colour, and the margins of the wing feathers are 



* I am indebted to Mr H. E. Dresser for the loan of these skins. 



