allen’s naturalist's library. 
294 
coverts creamy-white; quills dusky below, creamy-whitish along 
the inner web; bill black; feet brownish-black; iris dark brown. 
Total length, 6 - 5 inches ; culmen, 0-6 ; wing, 3’8 ; tail, 2'o ; tar- 
sus, I ’2. 
Adult Female. — Similar in colour to the male. Total length, 
6 inches ; wing, 375 ; tarsus, i'i5- 
The Isabelline Wheatear may easily be mistaken for the 
female of the Common Wheatear, but, as Mr. Howard Saun- 
ders has pointed out, the broader white lining to the quills will 
always distinguish it. This is a very good character, and 
another is the greater length of the tarsus in S. isabellina. 
This is 1 '15-1 "2 inch in length; whereas S. ananthe never 
has a tarsus longer than 1 '05 inch. 
Range in Great Britain. — This species has only occurred once, 
a specimen having been obtained by Mr. Thomas Mann, near 
Allonby in Cumberland, on the 11th of November, 1887. The 
bird was found in a ploughed field, quite alone, and was 
brought to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, who showed it to Mr. 
Howard Saunders, afterwards had it mounted, and then very 
kindly presented it to the British Museum, where it remains as 
one of our great treasures in the British saloon. 
Range outside Great Britain. — The Isabelline Wheatear is a 
resident in Palestine and the whole of North-eastern Africa 
from Egypt to Arabia and Somali-land, and perhaps remains 
in Masai-land, where it has also bee.i met with. To the east- 
ward its breeding-range extends to Thibet, S.E. Mongolia, 
Amoorland, and Northern China, but here it is doubtless only 
a summer visitor, as it is to Afghanistan, Turkestan, Southern 
Siberia, and the Lower Volga and Asia Minor. The birds 
which breed in the latter places doubtless winter in N.E. 
Africa, but the more eastern birds visit Northern India, passing 
through Gilgit in spring and autumn. 
Habits. — According to Mr. C. G. Danford, this Wheatear 
frequents barren ground, bushy hillsides, and even fir-woods in 
Asia Minor. The call-note resembles the syllables ■zri-zri- 
zri, but Mr. Danford also says that its notes are very peculiar, 
the most striking being a cry resembling that of a Sandpiper, 
which is uttered as the bird descends, after its hovering flight 
and I.ark-like song. 
