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Subfamily SAXICOLINM 



Genus SAXICOLA. 



ViMflora apud Brisson, Orn. iii. p. 449 (1760). 



Motacilla apud Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 332 (1766). 



Muscicapa apud Giildenstadt, Nov. Com. Petr. xix. p. 468 (1775). 



Turdus apud Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 820 (1788). 



Saxicola, Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. i. p. 217 (1802). 



Vitiflora apud Stephens, Gen. Zool. x. p. 530 (1817). 



(Enrmthe apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. xxi. p. 418 (1818). 



Sylvia apud Vieillot, Tabl. Encycl. ii. p. 485 (1820). 



Dromolcea apud Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 303 (1850). 



Lutucoa apud Paul von Wiirtemberg, fide C. L. Brehm, Vogelf. p. 225 (1855). 



The Chats form a very distinct group, on the one side allied to the true Thrushes through 

 Monticola, which genus forms a connecting link between the two, while on the other side the 

 genus Saxicola is closely related to Buticilla and Pratincola ; indeed the latter has been included 

 in the genus Saxicola by many authors. 



The Chats inhabit the Palaearctic and Ethiopian Regions ; and one species (Saxicola oenanthe) 

 has likewise been met with in the Nearctic Region, and is a regular summer visitant to 

 Greenland. 



In the article by Mr. Blanford and myself on the genus Saxicola (P. Z. S. 1874, pp. 213- 

 241) we made out that this genus comprises altogether thirty-seven species, of which fourteen 

 occur within the limits of the Western Palaearctic Region. But subsequent research tends to 

 show that there are at least one or two more than this number ; for Mr. Seebohm has lately 

 ascertained from an examination of a larger series than we then had available, that Saxicola 

 capistrata, Gould, is a perfectly good species, and should not be united with Saxicola leucomela. 

 Mr. Seebohm wishes also to separate Saxicola montana from Saxicola deserti as having more 

 white on the secondaries ; but this appears to me not to constitute a sufficiently good specific 

 characteristic. 



The Chats are by no means good songsters, differing in this respect from the Thrushes. 

 They are almost purely insectivorous, feeding chiefly on small insects which they pick up from 

 the ground. They make more or less well constructed nests, either on the ground or in holes 

 in walls or rocks, and deposit uniform blue or bluish white eggs, or else bluish spotted with red. 

 Saxicola leucura and Saxicola erythr&a, both of which lay spotted eggs, have them much paler 

 than those of any other of the European species that I have seen. The generic characters of 

 Saxicola, of which genus Saxicola oenanthe is the type, are as follows: — Bill straight, rather 

 broad at the base, rather longer than the middle toe with claw, compressed, decurved, and more 

 or less indented at the tip. Nostrils basal, supernal, and oval. Gape furnished with a few 

 bristles. First primary very short, second shorter than the third and fourth, third or fourth the 

 longest ; coverts and scapulars short. Tail nearly even, the basal portion nearly always white or 

 rufous. Tarsus long, covered in front by one long scale, to which succeed two or three shorter 

 ones. Claws compressed, strong, and moderately curved ; the outer toe partly united to the 

 middle toe ; lateral toes equal or subequal. 



