The Piecl Chat.



199



in front of a small house. The little bird was quite tame and was

offered me for a few pesos, as soon as the owner saw that I noticed

it. Bather foolishly, unmindful of all the miles that separated me

from home, I could not resist the temptation, and bought the bird,

carrying him to the inn in my hand, and as no such thing as a cage

was to be had anywhere, I with great difficulty arranged a little box

to put him in. This was just finished when I had to go on board

the steamer with all my belongings. In Osorno I managed to get a

mate for the little bird, and brought the pair safely home, via the

Straits of Magellan, Tierra del Fueg'o, the Smith Channel, etc., etc.,

where I still have them in splendid plumage at Gooilust, and when

their shrill voices ring through the air in the garden where they

inhabit an open aviary, it reminds me of the splendid woods and

mountains of Southern Chile.



THE PIED CHAT


Saxicola leucomelcena.


By Hubert D. Astley, M.A., E.Z.S., etc.


Travellers in Egypt will very probably have caught sight of

this strikingly handsome 11 Wheatear,” if that name can be applied

to any other of the species besides our own British bird : and the

illustration will at once explain the colouring, for with the exception

of the under-tail coverts, which are reddish buff, this Chat is black

and white, although the primaries and secondaries of the wings are

in reality deep brown, but the effect is a black and white bird. The

female is the same, but slightly duller in colouring, although one

would have expected her to be less conspicuous.


This species occurs in South-Eastern Europe and North-

Eastern Africa. It has been met with in Italy and Greece, but as

rather an uncommon visitor, I take it.


It is not uncommon in parts of Turkey, in Europe ; and very

common in New Russia, arriving, like our Wheatear does here, as

one of the earliest of the spring migrants. In Palestine it is

common, and Canon Tristram recorded it as being found 4 'throughout

the year in the rocky regions overhanging the Jordan Valley in the

Judaean Wilderness.”



