506 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Philadelphia, 1934, p. 238 (Doi Chiang Dao).— Riley, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 

 172, 1938, p. 472 (Chiang Mai, Nan). 

 Motacilla cinerea mclanope, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1936, 

 p. 121 (Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep). 



The gray wagtail is a very common winter visitor to all the north- 

 ern provinces, occurring chiefly on the plains but ascending the hills 

 in small numbers along the larger streams, to 2,700 feet on Doi Suthep 

 and to 4,300 feet on Doi Ang Ka. At Chiang Mai it is regularly 

 present from September 5 (1931) to April 23 (1935) but it some- 

 times appears extraordinarily early: I have found a pair on Doi 

 Suthep at 1,800 feet, July 25, 1936, and a solitary bird at the base 

 of the same mountain, August 3, 1929 ; it is not to be supposed, how- 

 ever, that the species ever breeds in Thailand. 



This wagtail haunts chiefly the shingle and stony shallows of 

 streams, and on the lower slopes of the hills a pair may be seen almost 

 wherever a brook falls over broad shelves of rock or flows among 

 tumbled boulders. Its manner of feeding and its sweet calls are 

 much like those of its congeners. 



Postnuptial molt seems to be completed before the bird arrives in 

 Thailand, and even the specimen of July 25 is in full winter dress ; 

 prenuptial molt is shown by examples taken February 26 and later 

 but the species disappears before acquiring full summer plumage. 

 Some individuals, however, don summer dress at the postnuptial molt 

 so that an occasional black-throated specimen is seen even in mid- 

 winter. 



A male had the irides brown ; the bill dull blackish, with the basal 

 half of the mandible plumbeous; the feet, toes, and claws horny 

 brown. 



The gray wagtail, in winter, has the forehead, crown, and mantle 

 gray (faintly suffused with olive-green), changing on the rump and 

 upper tail coverts to bright olive-yellow; the wings black, the sec- 

 ondaries edged buffy white along the outer web and with white bases 

 which show as a band in flight ; the three outermost pairs of rectrices 

 almost wholly white, the remaining pairs black; a narrow but con- 

 spicuous supercilium white; the chin and throat white (sometimes 

 tinged with yellow or buff) ; the remaining underparts yellow, 

 brighter posteriorly, fading to yellowish ashy along the sides of the 

 body under the wings. In summer dress, it differs chiefly in having 

 the chin and throat black (the feathers narrowly tipped with white), 

 bordered at either side by a long white mustachial streak. 



MOTACILLA FLAVA MACRONYX (Stresemann) 



Amur Yellow Wagtail 



Budytes flavus macronyx Stresemann, Avifauna Macedonica, 1920, p. 76 (Vladi- 

 vostok, eastern Siberia). 



