34 



rusty buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; the chin and throat greyer, and the underparts 

 generally with very indistinct darker streaks. 



Nestling (Java) . Upper parts deep fulvous brown, spotted with warm buff ; upper tail-coverts rusty buff ; 

 tail black ; chin, throat, aud breast greyish brown, closely spotted with warm buff; the abdomen warm 

 buff, with indistinct darker markings; under tail-coverts warm buff. 



This Stone-Chat has a wide range, being found from the Transcaspian district in the west, through 

 Persia, Afghanistan, and India to Java and the Philippine Islands. In Southern India and 

 Ceylon it is replaced by Pratincola atrata, which differs in being larger and having a much 

 larger and more massive bill. 



Professor Menzbier informs me that it has occurred in European Russia as a rare straggler, 

 ,as a specimen was obtained by Mr. Zarudny on the 2/14th May, 1882, in the vicinity of Sakmarsk, 

 on the river Sakmara. 



Zarudny also records it (Bull. Soc. Mosc. iii. p. 766) as inhabiting Transcaspia, where he 

 first met with it on the 10th of May on the banks of the Douchak, evidently on migration, and 

 about the middle of May he frequently saw pairs, evidently nesting, on the Alikhanow canal. 

 In the Merv oasis he found it extremely common, and it is said, he adds, to be especially 

 numerous in the oases of Khiva and Tehardjoiii, and along the Amou-Darja. Except during 

 passage it affects cultivated districts, and the plains covered with rich herbage and isolated 

 patches of rushes. It nests in holes and fissures of walls and of ditches, and on the ground 

 under the low rushes. He found nests late in May containing young. 



Eadde and Walter (Vog. Transcasp. p. 61) remark that up to Tedshen they never observed 

 a single one, either in the summer or on passage, but from that river towards the east it is 

 common chiefly in the reeds and tamarisk-bushes by water. It is wanting in the bare sand- 

 deserts of the Afghan frontier. Northwards it was found in the reeds on the furthest part of 

 the Tedshen. In 1887 the first arrived on the 4th April, between Geok-tepe in the Merv oasis 

 and Tolchatan-baba. 



Mr. Seebohm records (P. Z. S. 1879, p. 764) this species from the Attrek; but Eadde and 

 Walter remark that it must have come from the upper part of that river, as neither they nor 

 Nikolsky ever found it on the lower portion. 



Mr. Blanford says (E. Pers. ii. p. 144) that " Pratincola. caprata was not observed near the 

 coast in Mekran ; but the bird is far from rare about Dizak Bampur and Bam, keeping of course 

 to those portions of the country in which trees and bushes are common, and being often seen in 

 the gardens and orchards around towns and villages. It does not appear to ascend to the Persian 

 highlands, and I did not meet with it after leaving Bam." 



Sir O. St. John says (Ibis, 1889, p. 163) that this Chat is common all over Southern 

 Afghanistan and Kelat, and a few remain about Kandahar and Quetta to breed. Col. Swinhoe 

 records it as being numerous at Kandahar in March and April, and Mr. Scully states that he 

 found it at Herat and Murghab from March to May, and he obtained it once at Gilgit in 

 December. According to Mr. Oates (Faun. Brit. Ind,, Birds, ii. p. 60) this Chat is a resident 

 species throughout the whole of India and Burma, except the southernmost parts of the peninsula 



