198 PASSERES. SAXICOLA. 
yellowish-brown. Tail short, reddish-brown barred ae 
blackish-brown, and always carried erect. 
The female does not vary from the male bird in colour or 
markings. 
Genus XXIX. CHAT. SAXICOLA, Bechst. 
GENERIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill straight, slightly carimated, and advancing upon the 
forehead, dilated at the base, the tip of the upper mandible a 
little bent, and emarginated; forehead rounded and high. 
Nostrils basal, lateral, and oval, partly concealed by a mem- 
brane. Tarsus considerably longer than the middle toe ; toes © 
three before, and one behind ; the outer toe joined at its base 
to the middle one. Wings of mean length ; first quill scarce- 
ly half the length of the second, which is shorter than the 
third and fourth, these last being the longest in each wing. 
Coverts and scapulars very short. 
The present genus has been separated by BEcusrTEN, 
TEmMINCK, and other eminent ornithologists, from the genus 
Sylvia, in which it was included by Laruam and other au- 
thors. It affords sufficiently distinct generic characters to 
authorise a separation ; and the members of each differ essen- 
tially also in their mode of life. The species are all inhabi- 
tants of the Old Continent, and frequent moors and other 
open wastes, sometimes at considerable altitudes. They live 
solitary, or in pairs, and are wild in disposition. ‘Their food 
consists of insects and worms, which they chiefly take upon 
the ground. They run with much celerity, being enabled to 
do so by the great proportional length of the tarsus. The 
dilatation of the basal part of the bill, gives them an ap- 
proach to one section of the genus Muscicapa ; and they also 
form a connecting link with those species of the genus T'ur- 
dus that inhabit mountains, and other rocky situations. 
Many of the species are distinguished by the distribution of 
