214 MESSRS. BLANFORD AND DRESSER ON [Apr. 21, 



showing us every possible attention, and affording us all the assistance 

 in their power on the occasion of our visits to their Museums, most 

 kindly allowed us to take away typical specimens for comparison. 

 To Dr. Finsch we are still further indebted for his having lent to us 

 the whole of his manuscripts relating to Saxicola and its allies, con- 

 taining most valuable notes and identifications. 



Besides the museums above mentioned, we have visited those of 

 Paris and Frankfort, and examined the fine series of skins in the 

 British Museum. 



So far as regards the species of the genus found in the Palaearctic 

 region, the numerous described types which we have had the advan- 

 tage of examining, and the extensive series of specimens which we 

 have been able, by the kindness of our friends, to compare, have 

 given us great advantages in the study of the different forms, the 

 majority of which, moreover, had been personally collected by one 

 or the other of us in different parts of Europe, Persia, India, or 

 Abyssinia. We feel far less confidence in our determinations of the 

 South-African Saxicola, both because they are less known to us, and 

 because many of the species, founded on figures and descriptions in 

 the works of the older authors, the types of which are unknown, 

 render identification most difficult. This is especially the case with 

 the species usually known as S. monticola, Vieill., S. cinerea, Vieill. 

 (S. tractrac, Boie), and their allies ; and we think it not impro- 

 bable that some forms, which, for want of sufficient information, 

 we have kept distinct, may be merely different phases of the same 

 species, the distinctions being due to age or sex. 



It is exceedingly difficult to define accurately the limits of the 

 genus Saxicola, and to decide which of the numerous genera into 

 which it has been divided by systematists are really entitled to sepa- 

 ration. It is almost impossible to express in words the distinctions 

 between generic groups which, although the typical forms are well 

 marked, are connected by so many links as those which are found 

 in the Saxicolince and other subdivisions of the great natural 

 family which comprises the Thrushes and Warblers. In the genus 

 Saxicola, as defined by us, we have species which seem nearly as 

 closely allied to Pratincola, Ruticilla, Thamnoltea and Monticola as 

 they are to Saxicola cenanthe. 



There is no important characteristic structural distinction, so far 

 as we know, between several of these allied genera. If any character 

 is more constant than the rest in Saxicola, it is the pale or white 

 coloration of the feathers at the base of the tail ; yet we feel obliged 

 to admit some species in which this is wanting, and to omit others 

 which exhibit it. 



In the forms which we include, besides the species closely allied 

 to Saxicola cenanthe, are those for which the generic name Dromolcea 

 was proposed by Cabanis (the type being S. monticola, Vieill.), and 

 those referred to Campicola of Swainson (type S. pileata, Gm.). 

 At the same time we consider that Pratincola (type P. rubetra, L.), 

 which has muscicapine affinities, Cercomela (type C. melanura, 

 Riipp.), which leads to Ruticilla, Agricola (type A. infuscatus, 



