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Genus PRATINCOLA. 



Rubetra apud Brisson, Orn. iii. p. 440 (1760). 



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



Sylvia apud Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 159 (1769). 



Saxicola apud Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb. i. p. 218 (1802). 



Pratincola, Koch, Baier. Zool. p. 191 (1816). 



Curruca apud Leach, Syst. Cat. M. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 24 (1816). 



(Enanthe apud Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. xxi. p. 427 (1818). 



Fruticicola apud Macgillivray, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 273 (1839). 



Though very closely allied to the Saxicola?, I have deemed it expedient to keep this small 

 group distinct from that genus. The genus embraces about fifteen species, which inhabit the 

 Palsearctic, Oriental, and Ethiopian Regions ; but only three occur within the limits of the 

 Western Paloearctic Region. Like the Saxicolw these birds are insectivorous ; but they are 

 better songsters than the true Chats. They build tolerably well-constructed nests on or near 

 the ground, and lay bluish eggs, either unspotted or slightly spotted with reddish dots. 



Saxicola rubetra, which I consider to be the type of the present genus, is a shorter, stouter- 

 built bird than any of the Saxicola?. It has the bill short, straight, and rather slender, depressed 

 at the base, compressed towards the end ; mouth rather wide ; nostrils small, elliptical, direct, 

 pervious, in the fore part of the large anteriorly bare nasal membrane ; legs slender ; tarsus 

 compressed, covered anteriorly with a long plate and four anterior scutelke ; toes rather short, 

 slender, the third and fourth united as far as the second joint of the latter; bristles of the gape 

 rather large ; wings short, broad, convex, having eighteen quills, the first very small, the fourth 

 longest, the third and fifth scarcely shorter; tail short, nearly even. 



