SAXICOLA ŒNANTHOIDES.—Vigors. The American Stone Chat. PLATE XXXIV.—Adult.

The Stone Chats and Wheat Ears, which are the English names of birds of the genus Saxicola, are abundant in the old world, though the greater number of the species appear to be restricted to Africa. The few that are natives of Europe are numerous throughout the greater part of that continent. They are birds of plain but agreeable colors, and inhabit fields and other open grounds or plains covered with shrub-like vegetation, running with facility, and making their nests on the ground, or in holes beneath the surface. These are curiously constructed by some species of this group, and very carefully concealed, though frequently in situations much exposed. There are nearly forty species of this group of birds composing the present and a nearly allied genus.

Though there are so many species of these genera, the bird now before us is the only one that appears to be peculiar to the continent of America. One other, the Saxicola œnanthe, a common European bird, is, however, a visitor to this continent. We have seen undoubted specimens from Greenland, and occasionally it strays so far southwardly as New York, in the vicinity of which city a few specimens have been captured, one of which is in the collection of our friend, Mr. George N. Lawrence.

The present bird was originally described in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Blossom, from specimens obtained on the western coast of North America; but apparently the naturalists attached to the party which performed that voyage, had no opportunities of acquiring any information respecting its history or the district that it inhabits. Nor have others been more successful; no American naturalist or traveller having noticed it again in Western America, notwithstanding the researches which have been carried on in that portion of this continent.

The only specimen that we have ever seen of this bird is in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, to which it was presented by our intimate and valued friend, Thomas M. Brewer, M. D., of the city of Boston, one of the most eminent of American ornithologists, and now particularly devoted to the investigation of the nidification and oology of the birds of this country, the results of which we hope soon to see published. Dr. Brewer obtained the specimen alluded to in Nova Scotia, but could procure no account of it beyond the fact that it was considered as of unusual occurrence in that province.

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This bird is very closely allied to the Wheat Ear of Europe (S. œnanthe), and is in all probability of very similar habits. In the absence of positive information we can only suppose it to be an inhabitant of the countries north of the limits of the United States, in which there is a vast extent of territory well adapted to the habits of birds of this group. It is also probably not an abundant species, or it would have been noticed more frequently during its winter migration. But of the ornithology of all the northern portion of the United States from the ninetieth degree of longitude to the Pacific Ocean, or west of the Mississippi river, too little is known to justify any conclusions. Many species of Northern and Western America, of which little or nothing was previously known, have within a few years been demonstrated to be abundant, and such may hereafter prove to be the case with the bird which is the subject of our present article.

The figure in our plate is about two-thirds of the size of life.

The plant represented is Abronia umbellata, a native of western North America.

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Saxicola. Bechstein, Ornithologisches Taschenbuch, p. 216. (1802.)

Bill straight, with the culmen distinct and somewhat ascending into the feathers of the forehead; a few short and weak bristles at the base of the upper mandible, which is rather wide; wing rather long; first quill spurious, third and fourth longest, and nearly equal; tail moderate, wide, truncate; legs long, rather slender. General form adapted to living on the ground.

Saxicola œnanthoides. Vigors, Zool. Voy. Blossom, Ornithology, p. 19. (1839.)

Form. Rather larger than Saxicola œnanthe, but very similar to that species in form and general characters and appearance; wing long; second primary longest; tail moderate or rather short; legs, especially the tarsi, long; bill moderate, rather wide at base.

Dimensions. Total length of skin, about 6½ inches; wing, 4⅛; tail, 3; tarsus, 1¼ inches.

Colors. Narrow line through the eye, enlarging on the ears, black, which is the color also of the wings; forehead ashy white, fading into the cinerous of the head above; back cinerous; upper coverts of the tail white; under parts white, tinged with pale fulvous, darker on the breast; two middle feathers of the tail white at base; terminal two-thirds of their length black; other feathers of the tail white, tipped with black; bill and legs dark.

Hab. Northern America, Nova Scotia, Oregon. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philadelphia.

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Obs. We are not without doubts that the bird now before us is really distinct from Saxicola œnanthe of Europe, but having unfortunately a single specimen only, we cannot make an examination or comparison in all respects satisfactory. Our specimen is uniformly larger than either of the numerous specimens of the European species in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, and is, as an especial character, longer in the tarsi. Its measurements do not, however, correspond with those given in the original description in Voy. Blossom; but it is expressly stated that the specimens described were in bad condition, and may not be entirely reliable. It is, at any rate, very closely allied to the European species that we have just mentioned.

With special reference to the present bird, we shall look with much interest for the results of future zoological investigations in the northwestern territories of the United States. There is at the present time no field more inviting to the American naturalist. While much has been done in California, New Mexico, and Texas, the extensive regions which we have above designated have scarcely been entered upon, and will yet contribute much to the fauna of our country.

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