120 



BLACK WHEATEAR, 



tliese remarks than the fact of a good and practical 

 ornithologist like the Rev. Mr. Tristram, who adopts 

 Cabanis's division of the genus, having the greatest 

 possible difficulty in deciding on which side to place 

 the Bushchat, f Saxicola j^hilotliamnaj which he dis- 

 covered in Northern Africa, and which he has described 

 and figured in the ''Ibis," vol. i., p. 299. 



The Black Wheatear is an inhabitant of the warm 

 and southern parts of Europe especially, being found 

 in Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, South of France, 

 the Pyrenees, the H antes and Basse Alps, the Appe- 

 nines, (accidentally,) the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, 

 and Greece. It is included in Captain Loche's list of 

 Algerian birds. It does not appear in Mr. Carte's 

 interesting list of the birds of the Crimea, kindly sent 

 to me by Dr. Leith Adams. 



The Rev. H. B. Tristram's account of this bird, as 

 observed by him in Northern Africa, is so interesting 

 that I shall transcribe his notice of it from the "Ibis," 

 vol. i., p. 296. 



"The Chats are the tribe of all others the most uni- 

 versally-distributed in the Desert, yet having specifically 

 very narrow limits. They are, too, the only class of 

 birds there, which have any distinctive or conspicuous 

 colouring. The Larks, of various species, or the Sand 

 Grouse, may be on all sides, yet only a practised eye 

 can detect a sign of life in the waste. But the lively 

 Chat is seen afar; his clear bright colourincc o-leams in 

 contrast with the universal brown around him. Conscious 

 of his attractions he attempts no concealment, but relies 

 for safety on his watchful eye and rapid movements, 

 and, above all, on the snug retreat which he always 

 has open before him — his hole in the rocks, or his 

 burrow in the sand. 



