420 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 

 Saxicola oenanthe leucorhoa (Gmel.). 

 Greenland Wheatear. 



Rare summer resident. 



Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway say of the Wheatear: "Dr. H. R. 

 Storer of Boston found them breeding in Labrador in the summer of 

 1848, and procured specimens of the young birds which were fully 

 identified by Dr. Samuel Cabot as belonging to this species. In the 

 following year Andrew Downs, of Halifax, gave me the specimen 

 described and figured by Mr. Cassin. This was secured late in the 

 summer near Cape Harrison, Labrador, where it had evidently just 



reared its brood Its occurrence in considerable numbers on the 



coast of Labrador is further confirmed by a writer ('W. C) in the 

 'Field' for June 10, 1871." 



A specimen was brought to Coues by a sailor at Henley Harbor on 

 August 25, 1860. It was said to be in company with two others. 

 Coues thought it might be S. oenanthoides of Vigors, an incorrect view 

 for Vigors' measurements showed that he referred to the small form 

 S. oenanthe. Bigelow says that the Hudson's Bay company's factor 

 at Nachvak had three nests. 



This Wheatear that breeds in Labrador reaches its summer home 

 from Africa by way of England, Iceland, and Greenland. It is a 

 larger race than oenanthe which is found in Alaska. 



Stejneger's ('01, p. 477) remarks on the wheatears in North America 

 are here worth quoting. He says: "We have, consequently, in 

 America both forms, Saxicola oenanthe in Alaska and Saxicola 

 leucorhoa in Greenland and adjacent parts of northeastern North 

 America. As all the birds found in the latter part of the continent 

 belong to the large race, it is settled beyond the shadow of a doubt 

 that the Wheatears which breed in Alaska do not migrate by way 

 of Greenland or Labrador, but that they retrace their steps into the 

 Tchuktchi Peninsula and farther south into Asia, as indicated by 

 me fifteen years ago. 



"The Wheatear, the most widely distributed species of the genus 

 Saxicola, thus extends its range across the entire palaearctic continent 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. At both extremities of its 

 home continent, however, it has expanded its range into the New 

 World, and no one who follows on the map the route of the retreating 



