Female. Under wing coverts, edges of quills, crest, and tail, pale crimson, the last shaded with brown; entire plumage above cinerous, below yellowish-cinerous; no crimson on the forehead or on the throat or other under parts.
Hab. Texas, Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington city.
Obs. This beautiful species, though in general form and appearance presenting the characters of Cardinalis, is quite different in the form of the bill, and has been placed by the distinguished and accomplished naturalist who first described it (the Prince of Canino) in a subdivision which he names Pyrrhuloxia (Conspectus Avium, p. 500).
It appears to be restricted to Mexico and the southern part of Texas, though its northern range may yet be ascertained to extend farther than at present known. It does not resemble any other species sufficiently to lead to confusion.
Plate 34
The American Stone Chat
Saxicola œnanthoides (Vigors)
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.