AVIS-IBIS - An Avian Information System - Indian BioDiversity Information System

 

490bis. :- Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 143.

The Hooded Stonechat.
 

Length, 7 to 7.25; wing, 4 to 4.42 ; tail, 2.75 ; tarsus, 0.9 ; bill at front, 0.62.

Bill black; irides brown; legs black.

General color black; quills dark-brown, paler on under surface ; head, nape, upper and lower tail-coverts, belly, and flanks, white ; tail white, except the terminal half of the two central feathers, and the tips of the others, which are very dark-brown.

The female is similar to the male but browner, and the white parts are tinged with buff.

The Hooded Stonechat occurs as a winter visitant to Sind.

It has not been recorded from any other portion of the region.

 

 

 

The Hooded Stone Chat.

Adult Male. - General colour black; quills dark brown, paler on under surface; head, nape, upper and lower tail coverts, belly, and flanks white; tail white, except the terminal half of the two central feathers, and the tips of others, which are very dark brown; bill and legs black ; irides brown.

4. TURDIDAE.

Length. - 7 to 7.25 inches; wing 4 to 4.42 ; tail from vent 2.75; tarsus 0.9 ; bill at front 0.62.

Adult Female. - General colour very similar to the male, but browner, and the white parts suffused or tinged with buffy.

Hab. - Sind, Beloochistan, Persia, Egypt, Nubia and Palestine; wintering in Sind. Said to be resident in Persia and Egypt.

 

The Hooded Chat.

Saxicola monacha, Rupp., Temm. Pl. Col. no. 359, fig. 1 (1825); Blanf. & Dresser, P. Z. S. 1874, p. 227; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 369; Hume, Cat. no. 490 bis; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 203. Dromolaea monacha (Rupp.), Hume, S. F. i, p. 186.

Coloration. Male. After the autumn moult the forehead, crown, nape, hind neck, rump, upper tail-coverts, abdomen, vent, and under tail-coverts are pure white; tail white, the terminal two-thirds of the middle pair and a dash or two on the laterals brown; remainder of plumage black, the back and breast with a few whitish fringes, the secondaries, under wing-coverts, and axillaries with white tips. In summer the white fringes on the back and breast disappear.

Female. Upper plumage buffish brown; wings and coverts brown edged with buffy white; lower rump and upper tail-coverts buff; tail as in the male, but the white replaced by buff and with more brown on the laterals ; lower plumage pale buff.

Legs, feet, and bill black (Hume Coll.).

Length about 7; tail 2.9; wing 4.2; tarsus .9 ; bill from gape 1.

Distribution. The hills dividing Sind from Khelat, extending east to Sehwan, Whence I have seen a specimen procured by Brooks in January. This species is said to be a winter visitor to Sind, but this statement requires confirmation. It extends westwards to Baluchistan and Afghanistan, and on to Palestine, occurring also in Nubia.

* Saxicola lugens, Licht., has been recorded from Daulatpur in Sind by Mr. Murray, but under circumstances which render it doubtful whether the specimen upon which the statement is based was really obtained in Sind. This Chat resembles S. pleschanka, but has the under tail-coverts a deep buff, and the inner webs of the quills of the wing very largely white. (Cf. S. P. vii, pp. 118, 527, where this bird is referred to under the name of S. leucomela ) This species occurs in Persia and westwards to Palestine and Northern Africa. S. persica, Seebohm, is also allied to S. pleschanka and S. lugens, and differs from the latter in having the inner webs of the quills of the wing merely margined with white. In the former the whole wing is black. S. persica occurs in Persia in summer.

 

Gould's Chat.

Saxicola montana, Gould, Birds Asia, iv, pl. 30 (1865); Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 384; Si. John, Ibis, 1889, p. 164,

Coloration. Male. Resembles the male of S. deserti, but has 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 S. 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.

 

Saxicola monacha Temm. & Laug., Planch. Color. d'Ois., pl. 359, fig. 1, 1825 (ex Ruppell MS.): Nubia.

Saxicola pallida Cretszchmar in Ruppell's Atlas, p. 51.

Saxicola gracilis Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., vol i, p. 302, 1854, ex Licht., as synonym of monacha.

Saxicola semenowi Bianchi & Zarudny, Ann. Mus. Petersb., p. 187, 1900.