217 



northward, again, I find it recorded from the peninsula of Sinai by Mr. C. W. Wyatt, who writes 

 (Ibis, 1870, p. 13) that he shot a pair near Tor. Canon Tristram (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 442) obtained 

 a couple of specimens at the north end of the Dead Sea in the month of January, and also states 

 (Ibis, 1867, p. 95) that it frequents the shores of that sea, north and south. I do not find any 

 record of its occurrence in Asia Minor; but Messrs. Dickson & Ross, De Filippi, Blanford, and 

 St. John obtained it in Persia; and Eversmann records it (J. f. O. 1853, p. 287) from the eastern 

 shores of the Caspian, where, he states, it inhabits the clay soil and stony hills, or the low 

 mountain-ranges of the southern Kirghis steppes, eastward of the Caspian, to the Soongarei, 

 and especially affects the salty clay soil. Dr. Henderson found it common in Ladak, almost 

 to the Pangong lake, and again in the Lower Karakash valley and the plains of Yarkand ; 

 and Mr. Blanford writes to me, " I found it common on the shores of the Persian Gulf and 

 in Baluchistan in winter, and equally abundant in spring and summer on the highlands of 

 Southern Persia, where it breeds. In Northern Persia I did not notice it. I found a nest on 

 May 31st in a small hollow by the side of a bush. The spot was on an extensive plain, covered 

 with scattered bushes, on the road from Kurman to Shiraz, at an elevation of between 5000 and 

 6000 feet above the sea. The nest contained two young birds, just hatched, and one egg of a 

 pale greenish blue colour." Mr. A. O. Hume " found it common to a degree throughout Sindh, 

 as it is everywhere in the cold season throughout the North-western Provinces, the Punjaub, and 

 Rajpootana. The bleaker and more inhospitable the wastes that stretched away, the more at 

 home, true to his name, seemed the Desert-Wheatear. It was not, however, only in Sindh that 

 this bird occurred ; we equally met with it at Puisnu and other places along the Mekran coast, 

 and I have no doubt that, in suitable localities, its range extends unbroken from Cawnpore to 

 airo. 



Dr. Jerdon (B. of Ind. ii. p. 133) gives its range in India as " tolerably common in the 

 Upper Provinces, in Sindh, the Punjab, and Afghanistan ;" and Mr. A. von Pelzeln, in his paper on 

 birds from Thibet and the Himalayas (Ibis, 1868, p. 308), refers to it as found at Kotgurh (only 

 in winter), Lake Gyagar, in Rupshu, and Ankhang. The most eastern locality whence I find it 

 recorded appears to be Nagpoor, where Mr. Blanford (Ibis, 1867, p. 463) obtained three specimens. 



In its habits the present species does not appreciably differ from its allies *S'. rufa, S. mela- 

 noleuca, and S. amanthe, but is essentially a frequenter of solitary desert places. Von Heuglin 

 met with it in North-eastern Africa in pairs, frequenting the sand-plains and dunes, and found 

 both in the steppes and on the fallows, being but seldom met with amongst the rocks ; after the 

 rainy season they collect in small flocks and wander about the country, often in company with 

 other Chats and Larks. Captain Beavan, who obtained numbers near Umballah, in India, says 

 (Ibis, 1867, p. 451) that "when disturbed it frequently sits on low acacia bushes; and one I 

 had followed up took refuge in a peepul tree, on the lower bough of which I shot it. It readily 

 takes to holes in the ground when wounded." Its song is said to be pleasant, and is uttered not 

 only during the breeding-season but also during the winter. It feeds, like the other Chats, on 

 small insects, which it usually picks up off the ground ; and it is said by Messrs. Dickson and 

 Ross to eat ants. 



Its nest is said to resemble that of the Black-throated Chat, and is placed on the ground, or 

 else in a fissure, or under the shelter of a small bush. I have one single egg, obtained by Major 



