THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. X.] MAY, 1886. [No. 113. 
ON THE BLACK-THROATED WHEATEAR, SAXICOLA 
STAPAZINA, AND ITS ALLIES. 
By Henry SrEesoum. 
In the spring of 1878 an example of the Black-throated 
Wheatear, Saxicola stapazina, was shot near Bury, in Lancashire. 
In November of the same year it was exhibited at a meeting of 
the Zoological Society in London (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, pp. 881, 
977). I compared it at the time with skins from Spain, Greece, 
and Asia Minor, and came to the conclusion that it agreed best 
with eastern examples, though it was not a very extreme form. 
In 1874, when Mr. Dresser published the part of the ‘ Birds of 
Europe’ containing the history of this species and its allies, 
he recognised the distinction between the eastern and western 
races as specific, though he made a most extraordinary muddle 
of the synonymy; in some cases transferred the account of the 
habits and nidification of one species to the other, and figured 
and described immature examples as adult in both cases. 
In 1883 I included the Black-throated Wheatear in my 
‘History of British Birds’ (i. p. 807), pointing out that it was 
an example of the eastern race that had honoured our islands 
with a visit. I regret to say that in my synonymy of the 
Black-throated Chat, which I treated as one species, two mis- 
prints have occurred. In the second and in the last names on 
the list the words ‘‘ Western form” ought to read ‘‘ Hastern 
form.” 
ZOOLOGIST.— MAY, 1886. / 
