80 GULDENSTADT'S BED8TABT. 



INSECTIVOR^. 



Famili/ SYLVIIDJE. 



Genus Ruticilla. f Brehm.J 



Generic Characters. — Bill slender, compressed towards the point, slightly 

 deflected and rudimentarily emarginated. Nostrils basal, supernal, and nearly 

 round. Wings moderate in size; first primary short; second equal to sixth; 

 third, fourth, and fifth nearly equal, and one of the longest. Legs slender; 

 tarsus longer than middle toe, and covered in front by a single scale ; outer 

 toe slightly longer than the inner. 



GULDENSTADT'S EEDSTART. 



Ruticilla erythrogastra. 



Sylvia erythrogastra, MtJHLE; Monog. der Europ. Sylvien. 



Motacilla erythrogastra, GtJLDENSTADT ; Nov. Comment., 



Petr. 19, 1775, p. 469. 



" aurorea var. ceraunia, Pallas; Zoog., i, p. 478. 



Lusciola erythrogastra, Schlegel. 



Rouge-queue de Guldens-iddt, Of the French. 



Guldenstddt''s Rothsehwdnzchen, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — The tail unicolorous rust red, except the two middle 

 feathers, which are brownish red; a white mirror from the third to the 

 tenth primary. Length from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail 

 seven inches. Length of wings four inches one line and a half, of tarsi 

 one inch two lines, of middle toe eight lines, of hind toe five lines. ' 



Ruticilla erythrogastra is an inhabitant of the Caucasus during the 

 summer, migrating about the end of October to a warmer climate. 

 It was first described by Giildenstadt in 1775, and was subsequently 

 confounded with the Motacilla aurorea of Pallas, which is not, how- 

 ever, a European sjpecies, and is distinguished from it by the following 



