112 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



form, M. f. tliimbergi Billberg (Plate 44), a more or less 

 regular bird of passage, since it has been recorded on several 

 occasions in spring and autumn from Fair Island and our 

 eastern and southern shores. Both have slate-blue head and 

 nape, are without distinct eye-streak, and have white cheeks 

 and throat, but the feathers round the eye and the ear-coverts 

 are almost black in the latter and jet-black in the former. 



Black-headed Wagtail. MotacUla feldeggi Mich ah. 



The distinctive south-eastern European Black-headed Wag- 

 tail has been classed as a sub-species of M.flava, but though 

 the under parts are bright yellow in the male, the entire head 

 is black. The normal winter quarters are Arabia and north- 

 eastern Africa, but it has wandered westward so far as Algeria, 

 is not uncommon in Italy in winter, has been recorded from 

 Heligoland, and four or five times has appeared in Sussex and 

 Kent. It must be looked upon as an exceptional wanderer 

 rather than a bird of passage. Length, 6 ins. Wing, 3*2 ins. 

 Tarsus, i in. 



Tree-Pipit. AntJms trivia lis (Linn.), 



The brown plumaged pipits, closely allied to the wagtails, 

 are so far as the rarer species are concerned, an even more 

 puzzling group, but the three familiar kinds are easily separated 

 by their habits, voices and the length and shape of the claw 

 on the hind toe. The Tree-Pipit (Plate 46) is a regular and 

 well-distributed summer visitor and bird of passage to and from 

 northern Europe. It breeds in northern and central Europe, 

 and winters from the Mediterranean basin to far south in 

 Africa. In Asia it is represented by a closely allied form. 



In Great Britain, except in mountainous or treeless areas, 



