194 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
In 1885 Mr. Mitchell included the Black-throated Wheatear, 
under the name of Sazicola stapazina, in his ‘ Birds of Lan- 
cashire’ (p. 10), accompanied with a plate; and in the same 
year it appeared, under the same name, in Lord Lilford’s 
‘Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands.’ Neither 
of these plates were drawn from the Lancashire specimen, and 
both of them unquestionably represent the extreme Spanish 
type. Of the two forms or subspecies of Black-throated Chat, 
the western form, S. stapazina, breeds in Spain, and occasionally 
in the Riviera; whilst the breeding range of the eastern form, 
which must be called S. stapazina melanoleuca (if it be worthy of a 
name at all, which is very doubtful) extends from Trieste, through 
Greece and Asia Minor, to South Russia and South Persia. 
It is absurd to regard the two forms as specifically distinct, 
as Mr. Dresser has done, inasmuch as a perfect series from one 
to the other can be obtained, and of the intermediate forms it 
is absolutely impossible to tell by looking at them whether they 
were shot in Spain or Asia Minor. The two forms only differ 
in two slight particulars. Spanish examples have, as a rule, 
rather less black on the throat, and rather more buff on the 
back, than examples from Asia Minor. 
After a very careful re-comparison of the British example 
with examples of both the western and eastern forms, I still 
adhere to my previous opinion that it belongs to the eastern 
form. It is not a very characteristic example, but it is un- 
common to find a Spanish example with quite so much black 
on the throat, whilst examples with no more, or even with 
slightly less, are not rare in Asia Minor. As regards the buff 
on the mantle, its almost entire absence is confirmatory, so far 
as it goes, of the correctness of my identification. 
Both Mr. Mitchell’s plate and that of Lord Lilford represent 
Spanish birds, and are well and correctly drawn; but nothing 
could be more misleading than the figures of these two birds 
in Dresser’s ‘Birds of Europe.’ The Spanish form is repre- 
sented with the head bent down, so as to make the black on 
the throat look as small as possible, whilst the Asia Minor 
form is drawn with the head lifted up, to exaggerate the black 
as much as possible. Neither bird is fully adult. 
In Asia Minor a very nearly allied species is found, which 
has still more black on the throat, and further differs from 
