220 



Young Male (Constantine, Algeria). Crown, nape, back, and scapulars white, obscured by dull dusty 

 isabelline ; wings as in the adult female ; tail, throat, and underparts generally as in the adult male. 



Young Female (Till Hhora, 5th February) . Similar to the adult female, except that the upper parts are 

 paler in colour ; and the throat has not attained the blackish colour. 



Obs. At the- first glance the adult male of the present species bears considerable resemblance to Suxicola 

 melanoleuca; but the black on the throat extends much further down and joins that colour on the 

 wings, being also extended to the upper portion of the flanks. On examining a series, however, the 

 two species are very distinct. S. melanoleuca, like the Russet Chat, appears always to have some trace 

 of yellowish rufous coloration, and in the immature plumage, as also in the autumn and spring, this 

 tinge is very apparent ; but, on the other hand, the present species never appears to have that colour 

 in the plumage ; but only dull dust-grey (very seldom, indeed, with the remotest tinge of yellowish) is 

 the colour that pervades the plumage of the female immature bird, and possibly the adult bird in the 

 winter. Usually the prevailing colour in the adult female and immature bird is dust-grey ; but in one 

 immature specimen, Canon Tristram's type of S. halophila, the crown and back are faintly washed with 

 yellowish isabelline. 



Scarcely any of the Chats is so little known as the present species ; and all the information I 

 have managed to collect respecting it is comparatively meagre. First described by Ehrenberg 

 from specimeus obtained by Hemprich and himself in Arabia, it appears to have been lost sight 

 of until Canon Tristram met with it in Palestine, where he obtained a splendid series of speci- 

 mens in all stages of plumage, which he has kindly placed at my disposal. It has hitherto been 

 met with only in Palestine, Syria, Arabia, Egypt (where, according to Von Heuglin, Orn. N.O.- 

 Afr. p. 350, Zelebor obtained it in the desert of Saqarah), Persia, and Algeria, from which 

 latter country there are two specimens in the Berlin Museum, which Mr. Blanford and myself 

 carefully compared with Canon Tristram's examples, which latter we took to Berlin for that 

 purpose. Ehrenberg gives no particulars as to its habitat or its habits as observed by him in 

 Arabia, where he appears to have only obtained two specimens. 



To the eastward the Arabian Chat has been met with in Persia, whence Mr. W. T. 

 Pdanford and Major St. John brought back four specimens, which agree precisely with those 

 obtained by Canon Tristram in Palestine. The specimen in the Bremen Museum, a splendid 

 male bird in full breeding-plumage, the type of Saxicola finschii, is labelled as having been 

 obtained in Central Asia; but Dr. Otto Finsch informs me that it was procured through a dealer, 

 and that there is some doubt as to whether the locality indicated is correct. Mr. Blanford 

 writes to me: — "I obtained but one specimen of this species during my journey in Persia; 

 this was a male, in full breeding-plumage, shot at Khan-i-surk, south-west of Kurman, on the 

 '22nd of May, at an elevation of 8000 feet above the sea. Three other specimens were procured 

 previously by Major St. John at Shiraz in June. The bird appears to be rare in Southern Persia, 

 and has not hitherto, so far as I am aware, been found further to the eastward. I did not meet 

 with a single specimen in Baluchistan. It probably breeds in small numbers on the southern 

 portion of the Persian highlands." 



Being unable to find any published information respecting the habits of the present species, 

 I wrote to make inquiries of Canon Tristram, who sends me the following notes: — "This species 



