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mate would probably not pair again until the traveller had left the country ; and should it select for 

 its future partner a black-headed bird, that bird by the following year, before it can be observed 

 by the ornithologist, will have gained the white head ; and consequently it must be extremely rare 

 to observe black-headed and white-headed birds paired. On account of the rare occurrence of 

 birds of this species being paired while in their different plumages, I am led to consider that the 

 white head is attained after the first breeding-season. 



" In conclusion, I propose that the name Saxicola leucocephala be erased from our lists of 

 species, as only applicable to birds of a certain age, and that that of 8. leucopygia be made to 

 include them all. Otherwise while the parent bird might be ' leucocephala,' the young one from 

 its nest would be 'leucopygia.'" 



Dr. Leith Adams, who falls into the same error as so many naturalists, and considers the 

 adult and immature to belong to two species, writes (Ibis, 1864, p. 18) that it is the commonest 

 Chat in Nubia, where it frequents villages and ruined buildings, and delights to sport around 

 deserted villages and the ruined temples of the Pharaohs. He saw it at Thebes ; but it was not 

 common north of the First Cataract. Dr. Th. von Heuglin (J. f. 0. 1867, p. 202, and 1869, p. 151) 

 clearly demonstrates the identity of 8. leucopygia and 8. leacocephala, as also that the present 

 species and S. leucura are distinct, and states that the present species is a resident in Arabia, 

 Egypt, Nubia, and the Bischarin Mountains and has been met with on the Red Sea to 18° N. 

 lat. ; it there inhabits the open desert as well as the bare mountains, and is seldom to be met 

 with in cultivated tracts. Mr. C. W. Wyatt (Ibis, 1870, p. 13) records the White-headed Chat 

 as found on the peninsula of Sinai, where it is common everywhere throughout the mountain- 

 district ; and Canon Tristram, who met with it in Palestine, states (Ibis, 1867, p. 92) that it 

 occurs at the south end of the Dead Sea, about the salt mountains of Jebel Usdum, and also the 

 region extending much further into the rocky wilderness and higher up the western shores of 

 the Dead Sea; he also records it as found in the rocks above Engedi. 



In its habits the present species closely resembles the Black Chat. Dr. Brehm writes 

 (J. f. O. 1858, p. 65) that "it is shy and exceedingly cautious when it notices that any one is 

 following it. It frequents the walls of the towns and the neighbourhood of inhabited places, 

 and was met with at Assuan and the monastery on Mount Sinai. I never recollect to have 

 observed it trip about as if dancing, as does Saxicola leucura. It frequents the serrated and bare 

 mountains of the Nile-valley and the desert, and prefers the granite and old formation to the 

 limestone ranges, and is therefore more common at Assuan, near the cataracts, and in Arabia 

 PetrEea. It sings extremely well. We found its nest in the beginning of March in a hole of a 

 rock, where it was impossible to reach it. The fledged young ones are usually to be seen in 

 April. Most likely it commences nidification (in Egypt) already in the early part of January." 

 Canon Tristram also, writing on its habits as observed by him in Algeria, says (/. c.) : — " it is 

 very pugnacious, and lives all the winter in pairs, each couple preserving its own domain 

 undisturbed. I have watched a male perched on a point of a rock, with his white tail expanded 

 like a fan and perfectly erect, whistling loud defiance to a rival at the other side of the ravine. 

 The challenge is speedily taken up, and they advance nearer each other, till, after a very short 

 encounter, they retire to their respectives sides. No doubt the scarcity of their insect food 

 compels the Rock-Chats to distribute themselves very sparsely." 



