108 PIED WBEATEAB. 



page 300, describes its capture in Nortliern Africa. "This bird 

 (called the Mourning Chat) in habits is very like S. philothamna, 

 (Tristram's Bush Chat,) but, less confined to the bushy parts of the 

 desert, does not appear to come so far into the M'zab country. It 

 dwells in the boundless deserts of the Touareg, south of the furthest 

 French imaginary line. It was only here and in the Chamba 

 country, south-west of Waregla, in latitude 30° 50' that I obtained 

 specimens. It is very shy, and possesses great powers of flight." Mr. 

 Taylor, same volume, page 48, says, "The most abundant of all the 

 SaxicolcB on "the Nile." 



In his paper on the "Ornithology of Palestine," ("Ibis," 1867, 

 p. 95,) Mr. Tristram writes: — "The S. leucomela, Pall., with the black 

 back and white vent coverts, we only obtained once, but may have 

 often overlooked it; but the S. lugens, Licht., (*S'. leucomela, Tem.,) 

 with the russet vent coverts, was very common throughout the year 

 in the rocky regions overhanging the Jordan valley and in the 

 Judsean wilderness. If S. lihanotica were Israelite, S. lugens was of 

 Judah; for never out of Rehoboam's kingdom did we find it. There 

 it remained, its plumage varying neither sex nor season — the Pied 

 Wheatear, always at once to be identified by its ruddy vent. While 

 we shot it by the shores of the Dead Sea, it also resorted to the 

 fallow fields of the uplands; and on one occasion I found a nest 

 (with young instead of eggs, fortunately or unfortunately as the case 

 might be,) in the stone wall of a barley-field. We once took the 

 eggs exactly like those of *S'. lihanotica.'''' 



Mr. C. W. Wyatt ("Birds of Sinai," "Ibis," 1870,) says this bird 

 is "the only Chat that is universally distributed in that country, oc- 

 curring everywhere from the highest mountain regions to the sea shore." 



Mr. J. H. Gurney, on the Ornithology of Algeria, ("Ibis," 1871, 

 p. 80,) writes of this bird: — "It was only on the dreary route between 

 Gardaia and Berryan, where there is scarcely a particle of herbage 

 to harbour insects, that I observed this bird, except in one instance, 

 when I shot a specimen at Mellika; and it would seem that it rarely 

 enters oases. On the Berryan route many pairs were seen, mingled 

 though not actually consorting with a few S. desertiJ'^ 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the summit of the head, 

 nape, rump, lower part of chest, and abdomen, pure white; side of 

 the head, throat, front of neck, space between the eyes and beak, and 

 greater wing coverts, sooty black. Wings brown, the secondaries 

 slightly bordered with white. Tail white for two thirds of its length, 

 the end and two middle tail feathers black; under tail coverts light 

 russet; beak, feet, and iris, black. 



