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



Adult male. Head and nape ashy grey ; shoulders, rump, upper 

 tail-coverts, basal portion of all the outer rectrices, and abdomen 

 white ; back, wings, central rectrices, and tips of the outer rectrices, 

 lores, ear-coverts, throat, and breast black ; on the outermost tail- 

 feathers the black extends further up the outer than the inner web ; 

 but on the third and fourth rectrices from the outside the reverse 

 is the case ; the penultimate rectrices are entirely white (and in some 

 specimens the two outer rectrices on each side are entirely white). 



In immature specimens the head is dusky, the feathers dark- 

 shafted, the abdomen is black, with a few white edges to some of the 

 feathers, and the lesser coverts near the carpus are mixed white and 

 black. 



In the adult birds there is a rudimentary supercilium. Culmen 

 0-9, wing 4-4, tail 2'8, tarsus 1*25. 



Female? Upper parts to the rump dark cinereous, shoulders 

 white, a few of the median coverts dark-shafted ; quills brownish 

 black ; tail as in the male ; underparts uniform cinereous. 



Hab. South Africa, Colesburg, Natal, and Transvaal. 



Obs. Of the above species we have examined eight specimens — 

 five in the plumage described as that of the male, and three in that 

 of the female. Of the former, we have two phases of plumage cor- 

 responding to precisely similar phases in the birds we have identi- 

 fied with S. monticola and S. leucomelcena. In one the entire 

 abdomen is white, and in the other white and black mixed ; the first 

 we suppose to be the adult, and the other the young. We therefore 

 do not think that the present can be the young of £. monticola ; 

 and some of the specimens described have certainly no appearance of 

 immaturity. We have examined four examples of what we consider 

 to be the male of S. leucomelcena — also two of what we consider to 

 be the male of S. monticola, and five of the female ; and the plumage 

 is so constant in every case that we cannot but believe that we have 

 before us three well-marked species. 



2?. Saxicola diluta, sp. nov. (Plate XXXIX. fig. 1.) 



S. capite insuper dorsoque pallide cinereis ; humeris uropygio 

 supracaudalibusque albis ; rectricibus mediis nigrescenti-fuscis, 

 cceteris albis nigro terminatis, extremis extus apicem versus ple- 

 rumque nigro marginatis ; remigibus nigrescenti-fuscis ; lateri- 

 bus capitis gastrceoque perpallide cinereis ; abdomine albescente, 

 infracaudalibus ex albo cum nigro mixtis. In nonnullis ex- 

 emplis vertex nuchaque pallescunt, et ad medias plumas inter- 

 scapulii, tectricumque minorum alarum strice fuscce adsunt. 

 Culm. long. 0*8, alee 4*1, caudce 2"55, tarsi I "22, poll. Angl. 

 Adult male. Upper parts to the rump pale cinereous ; shoulders, 

 rump, and upper tail-coverts white ; central pair of rectrices blackish 

 brown, outer rectrices white with black tips, the black usually run- 

 ning some distance up the external web of the outer pair ; quills 

 brownish black ; sides of the head and underparts very pale cine- 

 reous, becoming whitish on the abdomen ; under tail-coverts white 

 and black mixed. In some specimens the head and nape are paler 



