280 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
the Indo-Burmese countries and the whole peninsula of India, extending 
westwards into European limits. In summer most of the birds go to 
Siberia and Central Asia, a few, however, remaining in the Himalayas to 
breed. 
They breed in these mountains from March to July. The nest, a neat 
cup made chiefly of grass, is placed either in a thick bush or in a crevice 
in a stone wall. The eggs, four or five in number, are pale green marked 
with dull brownish red. 
This Bush-Chat is found in all parts of the country except forest. It 
is seen perched on a bush, a post, a stalk of corn or grass, or even on a 
clod of earth, watching for insects, which it always catches on the ground, 
alighting for only just sufficient time to capture its prey. It expands and 
moves its tail frequently. 
265. PRATINCOLA LEUCURA. 
THE WHITE-TAILED CHAT. 
Pratincola leucura, Bl. J. A. S. B. xvi. p. 474; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 126; Hume, 
S. F. i, p. 183, iii. p. 135 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 102 ; Hume, S. F. v. p. 241, viii. 
p, 99 ; Brooks, S. F. viii. p. 473 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. iv. p. 194. 
Descinption. — Male in summer. The whole upper plumage^ sides of the 
head, chin and throat black ; the tips of the rump-feathers and tail-coverts 
white ; central tail-feathers black, the others almost entirely white on the 
inner webs and at the base of the outer ones ; wings black, the coverts 
next the body and the bases of the tertiaries pure white, some of the 
quills narrowly margined with whitish ; breast rufous ; sides of the throat 
and neck and the remainder of the lower plumage white. 
Male in winter. The front and sides of the head, as well as the chin and 
upper throat, usually remain black ; but the remaining parts, which are 
black in summer, become broadly margined with sandy brown ; the upper 
tail-coverts are tinged with fulvous at the tips ; the white of the tail is 
less pure and the white of the lower plumage is suflPused with rusty ; the 
throat is sometimes margined with white, and the sides of the neck are 
the same colour as the margins of the upper plumage. 
The female has no white on the tail, and is of the same colour as the 
female of P. maura, from which it cannot be distinguished. 
Length 5 inches, tail 2*1, wing 2*6, tarsus '7, bill from gape '7. The 
female appears to be of about the same size. 
The White-tailed Chat is a somewhat rare species. I procured it at 
Boulay, a few miles south of Thayetmyo, and it was sent from Tonghoo 
by the late Colonel Lloyd. Mr. Blanford states that he found it on the 
