Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/93

Rh almost the whole of the inner webs of the quills of the wing pure white quite up to the shaft ; is also much larger, the wing measuring 3*9 or 4 inches.

Female. Resembles the female of S. deserti, but has a large amount of white on the inner webs of the quills, whereas 8. deserti has none or hardly any ; is also considerably larger.

Distribution. 1 have examined specimens of this Chat killed by Biddulph at Skardo on the Indus river in Kashmir in October ; by Blanford at Gwadar, in Baluchistan, in December, and near Dizak in March.

Outside our limits this species occurs in Afghanistan in September, and in Turkestan and Tibet during the summer. It ranges to the west as far as the island of Socotra, whence I have seen a specimen killed in February.

628. Saxicola chrysopygia. The Red-tailed Chat.

Dromolsea chrysopygia, De Filippi, Arch. Zool. Genova, ii, p. 381 (1803).

Saxicola kingi, Hume, Ibis, 1871, p. 29 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xli, pt, ii, p. 239 ; Hutne, S. F. i, p. 187, iii, p. 476 ; id. Cat. no. 491 bis ; Barnes j Birds Bom. p. 204. Saxicola chrysopygia (De Fit.), Blanf. # Dresser, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 230 ; Blanf. East. Pers. ii, p. 161, pi. x, fig. 1 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 57 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 389.

Coloration. Sexes alike. Forehead, crown, nape, back, and scapulars brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale chestnut ; tail brighter chestnut, the terminal half of the middle pair of feathers and a band at the tip of the others black ; lesser, median, and primary coverts and winglet brown, edged with grey; greater coverts and quills brown, edged with rufous ; lores dark brown ; ear-coverts rich hair-brown ; a supercilium greyish white ; chin, throat, and breast white tinged with ashy; remainder of lower plumage pale brown with a vinaceous tinge, and turning to buff on the vent and under tail-coverts; axillaries and under wing-coverts greyish white.

Legs, feet, and bill black; iris dark brown (G. King).

Length about 6-5 ; tail 2*5 ; wing 3'8 ; tarsus 1-05 ; bill from gape '85.

Distribution. Apparently a winter visitor to the plains of North-western India, being found in the Punjab west of the Jhelum river, Sind, Cutch, Northern Guzerat, and Rajputana as far east as Jodhpur. This species extends to the west as far as Persia, where it is certainly found in the summer.

Genus CERCOMELA, Bonap., 1856.

The genus Cercomela contains one Indian species, the position of which is somewhat doubtful. The only young bird I have been able to examine resembles the adult, but, on the other hand, the