1874.] THE GENUS SAXICOLA. 215 



Smith), Myrmecocichla (type M. formicivora, Vieill.), Thamnolcca 

 (tvpe Th. cinnamomeiventris, Lafr.), and Oreicola (type O. pyr- 

 rhonota, Vieill.) are fairly distinguishable as separate generic 

 groups, though all closely allied to the true Saxicolce. 



The genus Saxicola was originally established by Bechstein, in 

 1802 (Ornithologisches Taschenbuch von und fur Deutschland, 

 p. 216), and comprised S. cenanthe, S. rubetra, and S. rubicola. 

 The two latter species were separated as Pratincola by Koch in 

 1816 (Baier. Zool. p. 190, pi. v. a, fig. 38), P. rubetra being the 

 type. In the same year the generic name Vitiflora was given by 

 Leach to Saxicola cenanthe in his ' Systematic Catalogue of the 

 British Museum,' p. 21 ; whilst a third generic term, (Enanthe, was 

 given also in the same year by Vieillot (' Analyse Nouv. Orn. Ele'm.' 

 p. 43). Vieillot added a large number of species taken from the 

 works of Levaillant and others in the • Nouveau Dictionnaire d'His- 

 toire Naturelie,' vol. xxi. Art. Motteux. In 1827 Swainson pro- 

 posed the genus Campicola, with Le Traquet imitateur of Levaillant 

 (S. pileata) as the type. This is a somewhat stouter form than 

 typical Saxicola ; but there is so complete a passage from one to the 

 other that we cannot separate them. 



Meantime a large number of forms had been added to the genus 

 by Lichtenstein, Hemprich, Ehrenberg and others, until the number 

 of species assigned to it by Mr. G. li. Gray in his ' Genera of Birds ' 

 (1849), p. 179, amounted to 33. In the course of the 20 years 

 which elapsed between the appearance of the * Genera ' and that of 

 the ' Hand-list,' that number, including the species referred to 

 various subgenera, had swollen to 69 ; and a few additional species 

 have been described since. In the present monograph we have 

 reduced the number to 37; but we exclude from the genus 12 of 

 the species included in Mr. Gray's first work, and 15 of those 

 enumerated under various subgeneric groups in the second. 



We have prefaced the descriptions of the species belonging to our 

 genus by an analytical synopsis, in which all the forms are classed 

 according to the coloration of the males, or of the birds supposed to 

 be males. 



In the synonymy we have only included, as a rule, a quotation 

 from the first proposer of each different specific name. We have 

 endeavoured, to the best of our power, to disentangle the confused 

 nomenclature which exists ; and we think it will be found that we 

 have considerably diminished the list of nominal species. Something 

 more in this direction perhaps remains to be done amongst the 

 South-African forms. 



The genus Saxicola, as understood by us, ranges throughout 

 Europe, Western and Central Asia, and the whole of Africa. One 

 species extends to North America ; but the genus is unrepresented in 

 the remainder of the American continent, Australia, and the Indo- 

 Malay region, such species as are included in the Indian fauna being 

 found in the central and north-western parts of the Indian peninsula 

 in winter only. There is a remarkable difference between the Palae- 

 arctic forms and those found in the Ethiopian region : the former 



