Gould recorded two instances of this attractive species found in England, a bird found near Brighton in 1854 which was illustrated in Yarrell's A History of British Birds second supplement, 1856, and another found near Start Point, Devon, in 1858, was in the British Museum.

Gould observed 'Its general colouring...is very similar to the sandy districts in which it dwells...but [it] can at pleasure render itself conspicuous by spreading out and exhibiting the contrasted markings of its tail, which it often does, perhaps to a greater extent than any other species of the Slyvidae.'

The plant depicted is the Chichorium intybus (Chicory).

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds from southwest Europe and north Africa (both north and south of the Sahara) and east to north Pakistan. Winters Sahel zone of south Sahara south to Kenya, and northwest India. Rare vagrant to Britain with only eleven records up to 1985