THE BIRDS OF MESOPOTAMIA. — 407 
a Blue-throat at Urfa on April 11th but. is in doubt to which form it should be 
referred, as it was a female; Zarudny records pallidogularis as wintering in 
the Karun district as well as the typical race. 
During their sojourn in the country Blue-throats may be found in any thick 
cover, scrub, wheat fields, and particularly thick reeds on the edges of swamps 
or damp ground. They are always rather skulky and shy. 
The race magna is I think very distinct ; the long wing @80-83°5, 978-79; 
the long tail (60-63) and bill 16°5-17 mm. distinguish it from other races but 
in addition the blue of the throat, which is intense deep blue with or without a 
small white spot (as also obtains in the European white-spotted, cyanecula) 
joins the red of the breast without any limiting black line, which all other 
forms have. The adult male in winter has the chin and throat above the 
blue, isabelline with moustachial streaks of blue; the first winter male has less 
blue and this part has wide pale edges ; chin and throat creamy white, 
while black spots form the moustachial streaks. 
Fourteen specimens examined : 
L. s. magna, & Kut, 9-8-19 ; 4 Amara, 4-4-18; Baghdad, 31-3-18 (P. A.B.) ; 
&@, Basra, 19-4-17; 9 Shaiba, 5-9-16 (P. Z.C. and R.E.C.); @, Feluja, 28-3-17; 
é@, Nahr Umar, 26-3-18; ¢, Akkarku, 22-8-18 (C. R. P.) @ Basra, 21-8-19; 
Q Basra, 148-19(L. Home). ? LL. s suecica § f Amara 29-11-17, 13-12-17 (P. 
A. B.). LZ. s. volge 3, Amara, 20-3-19, @, Sheik Saad, 20-3-17 (P. Z. C. and 
R. E. C.). 
126. Rebin, Erithacus rubecula. 
(1) Erithacus rubecula hyrcanus, Blanf. (Ibis., 1874, p. 79—Ghilan). 
(2) Erithacus rubecula caucasicus, But. (Orn. Monat. 1907, p. 9— 
Caucasus). 
These two races of Robin are inseparable in the field and the field notes 
probably apply to both. Buxton at Amara fornd Robins to arrive about 20th 
—23rd of October and soon became common, some passed on in November and 
the rest wintered in the gardens and thick Prosopis scrub ; about the middle of 
January they began to sing and they disappeared during the third week of Febru- 
ary. Both races were present at Amara. Pitman found Robins fairly common 
in thick scrub in the Adhaim and Samarra areas during November and Decem- 
ber and met several in reeds and rushes at Kurna on January 17; his records 
also apply to both races. JI came across Robins not uncommonly at Basra in 
November frequenting date palms, gardens and willows bordering the river, 
I found them very shy end skulking and their weak winter song sounded to me 
much like the English birds ; my birds were all hyrcanus. Robins are recorded 
in winter at Ramadi, Tekrit, Kut, Fao and as late as March 14th at Shus, so 
that one may say one or both races are fairly common throughout the area in 
suitable places. Both races are listed as winter visitors to the Karun area by 
Zarudny, who also includes the European Robin, while of one got in January at 
Ras-el-Ain between Mosul and the Syrian border Neuman says it matches well the 
European bird; none of the skins which I have examined can be however 
assigned to this race. 
Nineteen skins examined : 
E. r. hyrcanus : Amara, 23-10-18, 16-2-18, 5-12-17, 20-10-17 (two) (P. A. B.) ; 
Baghdad, 27-1-19 (P. Z. C. and R. E. C.) ; Abed, 8-2-18 (F. M. B.); Basra, 
20-1-17 (four) (C. B. T.) ; Samarra, 13-12-17, 7-3-18 (C. R. P.). Caucasicus ; 
Amara, 31-10-18, 20-10-18, 11-1-18, 3-11-17 (P. A. B.) ; Samarra, 14-12-17, 
4-11-17 (C. R. P.). 
E. r. caucasicus stands intermediate between hyrcanus and the typical race in 
colour of the back and throat, it has a smaller.bill than hyrcanus and less red 
brown on the upper tail coverts. Most specimens can be picked out easily 
but two of Buxtons were rather intermediate between the two races, 
