298 
ALLEN’S NATURALIST’S LIBRARY. 
biid, but has occurred on Heligoland on three occasions, in 
t ie month of October in 1856 and 1857, and again on the 
23rd of June in 1880. It is a desert-loving species and extends 
from Northern Africa to Egypt and India, Arabia and Palestine, 
east to Turkestan. It winters in the plains of Northern India 
and a few may even breed there. In Africa its winter range 
extends as far south as Somaliland. 
Habits.— As its name implies, this little Chat is an inha- 
bitant of desert countries, and it is emphatically the Wheatear of 
the Algerian Sahara. In its habits it resembles the Common 
Wheatear. 
Nest. Resembles that of the Black-throated Wheatear, and 
is placed on the ground, either under the shelter of a bush or 
in a fissure of a rock, and, like our Wheatears, it also nests in 
burrows. 
Eggs. — Greenish-blue, with reddish-brown spots distributed 
over the whole egg, hut rather more closely gathered towards 
the larger end. Axis, o-8 inch ; diam., o'6. 
THE FURZE-CHATS. GENUS PRATINCOLA. 
Pratincola , Koch, Syst. Baier. Zook, p. 190 (1816). 
Type, P. rubetra (Linn.). 
The genus Pratincola forms an intermediate link between 
the Chats and Flycatchers. The bill is broadened and re- 
sembles that of the latter birds, and, as with the Muscicaptdce, 
there are numerous rictal bristles. In the True Chats the bill 
is narrow and the rictal bristles are few in number and weak • 
thus the members of the genus Saxicola are more closely 
allied to the Robins and Redstarts. The Furze-Chats, however 
are Muscicapine Chats. They are entirely confined to the 
Old World and do not extend into the Australian Region proper. 
In Africa the genus is strongly developed and its members are 
also found over the greater part of the Palmarctic and Indian 
Regions as far as Celebes. 
THE WHINCHAT. PRATINCOLA RUBETRA. 
Motacilla rubetra , Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 332 (1766). 
