DESERT-WHEATEAR. 305 



above the level of the sea. The winter-quarters of these birds are in 

 Baluchistan, Scinde, and the North-west Provinces of India. 



The Desert-Chat is an inhabitant of those arid regions that appear, at 

 first sight, to be utterly incapable of supporting life of any description — ■ 

 dreary trackless wastes of sand and rocks, devoid of trees and shrubs, whose 

 sameness is only relieved by the variety of their physical aspect. But, " with 

 all its monotony," writes Canon Tristram (Ibis, 1859, p. 277), "the Desert 

 has its varieties. One day you laboriously pick your steps among bare rocks, 

 now sharp enough to wound the tough sole of your camel, now so slippery 

 that the Arab can scarce make good his footing. Another day you plunge 

 for miles knee-deep in loose suffocating sand-drifts, ever changing and 

 threatening to bury you when you halt. Sometimes a hard pebbly surface 

 permits a canter for hours over the level plain amidst dwarf, leafless, dust- 

 coloured shrubs. Perhaps, on surmounting a ridge, the mirage of a vast 

 lake glittering in the sunshine excites both the horse and his rider. On, 

 on, gallops the wiry little steed over sand hard and crisp, and coated with 

 a delicate crust of saltpetre, the deposit of the water, which at rare inter- 

 vals has accumulated there, and formed the Chotts and Sebkhas of the 

 Desert." Here, in such dreary solitudes, the little Desert-Chat may be 

 seen hoppiing restlessly amongst the sand, or, when alarmed, flying off' to 

 some considerable distance out of danger and away from intrusion. It is 

 often seen sitting quietly on the edge of the di'ifts, and, as their crumbling 

 sides give way, appears to search for its sustenance amongst the falling 

 sand. 



The habits of this bird appear much to resemble those of the Common 

 Wheatear. It possesses the same characteristic drooping flight, and, as 

 in the well-known bird of our own islands, its tail is ever in jerking motion, 

 accompanied by a slight shaking of the Avings. Sometimes it Mill perch 

 on a little stunted bush in the desert, or on the banks of fields or mud- 

 walls of gardens, and more frequently on a stone. Here it utters its short 

 and pleasing song, which is said to be given forth both in the summer and 

 winter months. In the rainy season they collect in small flocks, and 

 wander about the country in company with allied species. 



The food of the Desert-^Vheatear is, like that of other Chats, composed 

 of small insects, picked up amongst the sand or, at times, when flutter- 

 ing in the air ; and Messrs. Dickson and Ross also record it as feeding on 

 ants. 



Of the habits of the Desert-Chat during the breeding-season but little 

 is known. Its nest is said, by ornithologists who have met with it, to 

 resemble that of the Black-throated Chat, and is placed on the ground, 

 sometimes in the shelter of a bush or in a fissure of the rocks, or not 

 unfrequently in the walls of wells. Canon Tristram also reports it as 

 building its nest in burrows. Eggs of this bird are very rare in coUcc- 



VOL. I. X 



