BIIJDS. 205 



June and Julj-, but it is not found on anj' of tlie Aleutian chain nor on the mainland north of the 

 Alaskan Mountains. From these mountains southward it is abundant, however, and its nest and 

 eggs have been obtained at Sitka. Its times of arrival and de])arture are unknown, and its biog- 

 raphy in this part of its range yet remains to be written. 



A comparison of specimens of this and of the other form from Xortheru Alaska and Eastern 

 North America shows that the race pileohita is based upon a general and con.staut intensity of 

 coloration. 



MoTACiLLA octJLAEis Swinh. Swiuhoe's Wagtail. 



Although this bird has been taken repeatedly at Plover Bay, Siberia, and thence throughout 

 a large portion of Northeastern Asia, including China and Formosa, to the Lake Baikal region, it 

 appears to be almost unknown in Alaska. In fact its claim as a bird of the Territory rests upon 

 the capture of a single specimen, a young bird in summer plumage, by Captain Kellett and Lieu- 

 tenant Wood iu " iSTorthwest America," as recorded in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, X, 473. 



The Wagtail seen by Mr. Turner on Attu Island, on the western extreme of the Aleutian chain, 

 may possibly have been of tliis species, but it is far more probable that it was the M. lugcns which 

 Dr. Stejneger found common upon the Commander Islands. 



A single specimen of ocularis was taken by Mr. Belding at La Paz, Lower California, during 

 the winter of 1881-'82. It is scarcely necessary to add that its occurrence at this point, so far 

 from its home, is entirely accidental. 



The western limit of this bird iu Siberia is given by Seebohm as the water-shed between the 

 Yenesei and the Lena Elvers; thence east it has been taken in many portions of th-.' continent, in- 

 cluding Mongolia, Chukchi land, and the localities previously mentioned. 



A fine adult male secured by me June 20, 1881, at Plover Bay, Siberia, presents the following 

 characters: The back is nearly uniform ashy, changing on the upper tail-coverts to blackish, edged 

 with dark-ashy. All but the two outer feathers black. The two outer feathers are white with 

 their bases black and a narrowing longitudinal band of the same along the edge of the inner web 

 of each, vanishing towards the end of the feather. A black line extends along and near the shaft 

 on the outer web of the next to outer tail-feather, becoming broken and disappearing toward the 

 end of the feather. The wings are light-brown, but the tertiaries are much darker and edged with 

 white. The latter color so broadly edges the greater and lesser wing-coverts as to overlap and 

 conceal the dark-brown centers, and forms a largo uniform patch on the upper surface of the wing. 

 A broad frontal patch of white extends from the bill back on the middle of crown to a line connect- 

 ing the posterior edge of orbits; this white is continued back nearly to the occiput as a su])erciliary 

 stripe. A narrow black line extends from the gape through the eye, uniting on the back of the 

 neck with a nearly square black patch, which occupies the occipital and nuchal area, and extends 

 partly down the sides of the neck. From the base of lower mandible on either side a widening 

 band of white extends back under the eye, on the cheeks, and down the sides of the neck, separat- 

 ing the black crown patch from the large black area, which extends from base of under mandible 

 over the throat and breast. The rest of the under surface is dingy white with a wash of ashy on 

 the sides and flanks. Bill and feet black, iris dark hazel. Fall specimens exhibit a somev.bat sim- 

 ilar pattern, with the black and white areas on the head and neck much broken up and intermixed . 



BuDYTES FLAvrs LEUCOSTEiATUS (Hom.). Siberian Yellow Wagtail (Esk. Psii- 

 (lulc). 



On the west coast of Europe, and extending across the entire northern portion of the Old 

 World, is found a series of closely- allied Wagtails, of which the form under consideration repre- 

 sents the easternmost. The literature bearing upon these birds is in a state of considerable 

 confusion, owing to the variability and close inter-relationship between the several varieties. 

 The Yellow Wagtail of Eastern Siberia, extending across Bering Sea into that portion of Alaska 

 in the region of Bering Strait, is one of the handsomest among its several related forms; and of 

 the several additions made to the North American fauna by the explorers of the Western Union 

 Telegraph Expedition, this was one of the most interesting. The first specimens were obtained 



