426 



the eye to the nape, where they join ; this line is bordered below from the eye by a black stripe; and on 

 the nape there is a similar border above; entire upper parts, including the wing-coverts and inner 

 secondaries, rufescent isabelline ; primaries and primary-coverts black, the former slightly tipped with 

 brownish isabelline; outer secondaries blackish on the inner web, isabelline on the outer web, and 

 tipped with white ; tail isabelline, the central rectrices rufescent isabelline, the remainder with a sub- 

 terminal blackish patch, and fading almost into white at the tip ; underparts isabelline, with a greyish 

 tinge on the breast, and becoming creamy white on the lower abdomen, lower flanks washed with sooty 

 black ; axillaries and under surface of the wing black ; beak dark horn, light greyish at the base of the 

 lower mandible; legs greyish; iris dark brown. Total length about 95 inches, culmen T2, wing 6 - 05, 

 tail 2'62, tarsus 2'15. 



Female. Similar to the male. 



Young (Algeria) . Upper parts duller than in the adult ; crown rufous isabelline, tinged with blue-grey on 

 the nape, and marked with semicircular blackish lines, but lacking the characteristic black, white, and 

 blue-grey markings of the adult ; a whitish isabelline line passes over the eye ; and the sides of the head 

 are pale isabelline, with a few dark markings ; upper parts marked with irregular crescentic dark lines ; 

 wings and tail as in the adult, but the primaries are on the terminal portion margined with isabelline ; 

 underparts pale isabelline, on the throat and breast marked with small brownish spots. 



The present species inhabits the sandy desert plains of North Africa and Western Asia, being 

 elsewhere met with only as a rare straggler. It is somewhat remarkable that it should have 

 occurred so frequently in Great Britain ; for Mr. Harting gives in all sixteen instances of its 

 having been obtained, besides mentioning others where it was only seen. The first instance on 

 record appears to be that mentioned by Latham of one shot near Wingham, in Kent, in 1787; a 

 second specimen is said by Fleming to have been obtained in North Wales in 1793 ; a third was 

 shot near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, in April 1816 ; a fourth was, as stated by Mr. Fox, obtained 

 in October 1827 in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire; and a fifth was -shot by Mr. W. Langton 

 on East Down, Salisbury Plain, in October 1855. These five occurrences are all that were 

 enumerated by Yarrell in his third edition ; but to these may be added the following occurrences 

 recorded previous to 1856, viz. : — one, Yorkshire, 1825 {Gould) ; one in the collection of the late 

 Mr. Hoy, obtained near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in October 1828; and one, Cheswick, Northumber- 

 land, November 1846, in the collection of Mr. Brodrick. The remaining instances, enumerated 

 by Mr. Harting, are as follows : — two seen, one shot, Braunton Burrows, North Devon, October 

 1856 (Mathew, Zool. 1857, p. 5346); one, Hackney Marshes, Middlesex, 19th October, 1858 

 (Neivman, Zool. 1858, p. 6309); one, Somerset (Bowe, List Birds Devon, p. 32); one, Allonby, 

 near Maryport, Cumberland, October 1864 [ALUs, Zool. 1865, p. 9418) ; one, Sandwich, Kent, 

 October 1866 (Harding, Zool. 1866, p. 523) ; one, Cleghorn, near Lanark, October 1868 (Walker, 

 Zool. 1868, p. 1459); one, Christchurch, Hants (Gurney, Zool. 1869, p. 1512); and one near 

 Low Lynn, Northumberland, November 1870 (Gurney, Zool. 1871, pp. 2522, 2562). On the 

 continent of Europe it is a rare straggler, excepting in the extreme south. It has not been 

 obtained in Scandinavia, and has, according to Borggreve, only twice been recorded from North 

 Germany, once from near Darmstadt, and once from Mecklenburg; but, according to Dr. Bruch, 

 another example is in the collection at Wiesbaden, which was obtained near Eltfeld about the 



