290 
allen’s naturalist's library. 
the latter birds in their black legs and in the different colour of 
the sexes, though they never have red tails. On the contrary, 
they nearly all have the rump and base of the tail white, and 
the mottling of the young is somewhat different in character 
from that of Thrushes and Redstarts. 
The Chats are birds of desert and rocky countries as a rule, 
and are only found in the Old World, where they avoid the 
forest districts, so that no species of the genus Saxicola is 
found in the Indo-Malayan or Australian Regions. On the 
other hand, there are many Chats in the /Ethiopian Region, and 
a large number of species inhabit the Mediterraneo-Persic Sub- 
region. In most countries they are resident, but some are migra- 
tory to a certain extent, none, however, equalling our Common 
Wheatear in this respect. 
THE WHEATEAR. SAXICOLA CENANTHE. 
(Plate XXV.) 
Motacilla esnanthe , Linn., Syst. Nat , i., p. 332 (1766). 
Saxicola oenanthe, Macg., Br. B., ii., p. 347 (1839); Newt, ed 
Yarr., i., p. 289 (1872) ; Dresser, B. Eur., ii., p. 187, pi. 21 
(1874) ; Seeb., Cat. B. Brit. Mus., v., p. 391 (1881) ; id. 
Br. B., i., p. 298(1883); B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 6 (1883); 
Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B., pt. i. (1885) ; Saunders, Man., p. 
19 (1889). 
Adult Male. — General colour above slaty-blue, slightly washed 
with brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; wing-coverts 
and quills brownish-black, with obsolete brownish margins, the 
secondaries narrowlyfringedwith ashy-whitish at the ends; centre 
tail-feathers blackish-brown, the remainder white, with the ter- 
minal third blackish-brown, forming a broad band ; crown of 
head grey, like the back; base of forehead white, with a distinct 
white eyebrow running from the base of the bill to beyond 
the line of the ear-coverts ; lores, eyelids, sides of face, and ear- 
coverts, black ; cheeks, throat, sides of neck, breast, and sides of 
body, pale tawny-buff ; the centre of the breast, abdomen, thighs, 
and under tail-coverts creamy- white ; axillaries white, with dusky 
bases ; under wing-coverts black with white edges ; quills ashy 
below; bill and feet black; iris dark brown. Total length, 5-8 
inches; culmen, o'6s ; wing, 37; tail, 2’i ; tarsus, i'o. 
