C. Ingram. — The Black-Throated and Black-Eared Chais. 



393 



Not only this, he lumps the western forms of both species (?) together under 

 the name of Saxicola hispanica hispanica. The near eastern forms of both 

 species he calls S. h. xanthomelaena (Greece, Bulgaria, Palestine and Asia 

 Minor). But the true Eastern Black-Troated Chat (Persia eastwards) he 

 désignâtes as Saxicola melanoleiica melanoleuca ! Many writers of course 

 question the advisability of thus uniting the Black-Throated and Black-Eared 

 Chats and certainly convincingproof is still wanting. Wearebound to admit 



there is very strong évidence in favoui of doing so, but the markings of 

 the two birds — one with a black throat and the other without — are 

 so strikingly characteristic and distinct that it is not casy to believe tliey 

 are one and the same species and it is piîrhaps désirable to await further proof 

 before definitely uniting them (1). And if they are the same, why should this 

 dimorphism not be noticed in the eastern race, Saxicola (hispanica) mela- 

 noleuca ? Dr. llartert, in his key of the varions species, characterises this 

 bird as liaving the throat and fore-neck black (Kehle und Kropf schwarz) 

 and regards it as specifically distinct. 



(I ) An argument to be advanced in favour o" uniting thèse two birds is that an almost 

 analagous case occurs with Saxicola leucopyga and the so-ialled S. leucocephala. Thèse are 

 certainly dimorphic forms of the same bird. In many spécimens the crown is pure white : 

 in some white, mixed with black and in others entirely black and therefore uniform with 

 the back. 



