350 



the name of Saxicola alMgularis, from Smyrna specimens of Dr. Kriiper's. My reasons for 

 changing the genus I shall give. De Filippi (Viagg. in Persia, p. 347) has set forth a new genus 

 (Irania), and described under it a bird as Irania finoti, which, so far as 1 can make out, is 

 nothing else than the female of B. alMgularis. It is impossible, I think, for any one, on observing 

 this beautiful form, whether in life or as a cabinet-specimen, not to admit that, though Saxicoline 

 in its affinities, it is a very aberrant member of the group. It corresponds in all generic features 

 with Sir A. Smith's genus Bessonornis (recte Bessomis), which was formed for the reception of 

 more than a dozen African species, differing from Saxicola in the length of tarsus, elongated tail, 

 and having the rufous coloration of Buticilla. To this type our present species undoubtedly 

 belongs, in proportions, anatomy, coloration, and habits ; and De Filippi's genus Irania appears 

 to me a mere repetition of the older Bessomis. 



" On the afternoon of June 4, 1864, I was rambling alone among the vineyards and pear- 

 orchards which stretch about three miles above Rasheiya to the very verge of the naked sides of 

 Hermon ; and the icy water from the melting snows was trickling even then, in refreshing rivulets, 

 through the channels which intersect the primitive enclosures. It had already been a day cretd 

 notanda in my collecting-journal. I had just taken my first nest of Hypolais wpcheri, shot the 

 birds, and ascertained I had a new species in my bag. I had secured four or five specimens of a 

 Serin unknown, with a nest of hard-set eggs; and this, too, proved to be new, my Serinus auri- 

 frons. Two new species on the highway of ordinary travel were pretty well for a clay's work ; 

 and 1 sat clown, and was employed in blowing the eggs of Upcher's Warbler, when from a pear- 

 tree overhead burst forth a song equal to that of the Thrush, but shorter; it was new to me; 

 but I could not see the musician. He began again, and I caught sight of a jerking red tail in a 

 pear-tree at a little distance. I took him for a Petrocincla saxatilis, as he perched with his back 

 to me, and the sun glanced upon him. Soon the eggs were hurried into my case, and I was up 

 in pursuit. Off he went out of the vineyards to the bare moraine beyond, and sat, Chat-like, on 

 a boulder. I kept him in sight as he popped from rock to rock, and at length, as he was 

 returning towards his first perch among the fruit-trees, I had a fair shot at him, and he fell just 

 outside the crumbling wall, not a feather lost or soiled. 'African again!' said I to myself, as I 

 fondly examined my prize. I soon heard another male of the same, but had only a distant 

 glimpse of him, and it was too late in the day to remain longer in pursuit. The females were, 

 no doubt, sitting not far off; but I never saw them ; and a more hopeless labyrinth in which to 

 search for the nests of ground-builders like the Chats cannot be conceived. The very vineyards 

 are merely long rows of parallel ridges of loose stones, six feet wide and four feet high, raised at 

 intervals of twelve paces, and on which the vines are trailed. One might have to remove a whole 

 ton weight of stones on the chance of finding a nest, even when the bird had been exactly 

 marked in. The few nests of Rock-Chats that are in my cabinet I hold to be among my hardest- 

 earned treasures. No Chat or Redstart I ever heard has so clear or bell-like a note as B. albi- 

 gularis ; and if it were more prolonged, it might rival the Bulbul's. My female specimen was 

 procured a week or two later, among oak-coppice on the eastern shoulder of Lebanon, where she 

 was incubating. Again we heard her mate among the thick foliage of the evergreen oaks, but 

 did not obtain him. The eggs are very pale blue, thickly studded with brown spots, and larger 

 than those of the Wheatear." 



