Ornithological Notes from Afghanistan. 55 
(483) PRatTINCOLA MAURA. 
Motacilla maura, Pall., Reise Russ. Reichs. ii. Anh., p. 708. 
Pratincola maura (Pallas), Sharpe, Cat. Birds, iv. p. 188. 
Pratincola indica, Blyth ; Wardl.-Rams. Ibis, 1879, p. 446. 
This Stonechat is certainly about the commonest of all birds 
in this part of Afghanistan. As other people have before 
remarked, these birds vary much in the same locality; and so 
do their eggs. Some females have the throat, belly, vent, 
and upper tail-coverts nearly white, whilst others have the 
throat and belly tinged with brown, and the breast and upper 
tail-coverts with ferruginous. Whether it is a constant fact 
or not, am unable to say ; but it is worth remarking that, in 
several cases in which I shot the female at the nest, the 
bird with the ferrnginous upper tail-coverts and breast had 
pale blue eggs, only minutely freckled with nearly obsolete 
pale reddish-brown spots, and the other above-mentioned 
variety had its eggs densely marked with freckles of reddish 
brown, especially at the thicker end. The nests were always 
placed on the ground, and generally on the steep slopes of 
the hill-sides. 
(490) SaxicoLa MoRIO. 
Saxicola morio, hr. Symb. Phys. “ Egypt and Arabia.” 
All the specimens collected in Afghanistan are, I think, 
referable to this species, having the inner webs of the pri- 
maries of the same colour as the outer, and not white as in 
S. leucomela, Pall. 
Taking the white inner webs of the primaries as the dis- 
tinction, I find that in a large series in the Tweeddale col- 
lection one specimen only can be attributed to Saxicola leu- 
comela, Pall., which was collected on the shores of the Dead 
Sea by Dr. Tristram, and that all the rest, without exception, 
chiefly from Central Asia, Lahore, and Umballah, are S. 
morio. In addition to the russet under tail-coverts of S. leu- 
comela, I may point out that it may be also distinguished by 
the shafts of the primaries being white at the base, showing 
* Since the above was in print I have examined the series of S. lewcomela 
and S. morio in the collections of Messrs. Seebohm and Dresser, and find 
that this character is not constant, as many examples of S. morio have the 
shafts at the base of the primaries white. 
