O^S ORNITITOLOOTCAT- EXPLORATIONS. 



thority for tbe name MotaciUa lugens, which, by later writers, has been 

 ascribed to Illiger; but, as far as I can detect, neither Pallas nor Illiger 

 have ever published such an appellation, which, probably, is a museum 

 name only.* It will, however, stand on v. Kittlitz's authority, as it is 

 unmistakably based npon the typical Kamtschatkan bird, and both the 

 description and the figure are equally conclusive. That Teraminck 

 «/feru-«r^7"confounded lugens with the Japanese species cannot make the 

 name untenable for the species to which it clearly belongs. 



It cannot be too often repeated that M. lugens Temm. & Schleg. is 

 inapplicable to the Japanese species, as it was given by v. Kittlitz to 

 the quite distinct Kamtschatkan bird fourteen years earlier, and that 

 Swinhoe's uainejaimiica must stand for the former. 



Various authors have considered the Black-backed Kamtschatkan 

 Wag-tail identical with the Japanese species, while others, e. g., Eobert 

 Ridgway, referred it to MotaciUa ocularis SwiNH. It is, however, a 

 distinct' form, easily distinguishable in the male summer plumage, 

 although the females and the winter plumage are very difficult to 

 separate from those of ocularis. 



Little need be said as to its diifereuce from M. japonica. The latter 

 species has well-marked black cheeks, white chin, and both males and 

 females have the back black. 



On the other hand, it is the unanimous assertion of those who have 



met ocularis in the interior of Siberia and on the Tschuktschi Peninsula, 



that the males of the latter, even in summer, have a gray back like 



that of the females, and that they never met a black-backed one. Dr. 



Dybowski informed me that he has collected numerous specimens of 



this species in all plumages, but never a male which was not gray, and 



that he has examined a series of about twenty summer birds, collected 



in Tschuktschi Land, by the Russian Expedition for observing the 



Transit of Venus, all of which, both males and females, were uniform 



gray on the back. It is furthermore stated that the true ocularis is a 



somewhat smaller bird than the Kamtshatkan form, the males being 



hardly larger than the females of the latter. 



The adult males of these three forms, in summer plumage, may, 

 therefore, be distinguished thus : 



:Tf7"a!8^^^oW7^arhun^g^ Ibis, 1878, p. 349. Seebohm " lost the 

 scent (of .v. Ingem Illiger) altogether in Middendorff's 'Sibirische Reise p. 166 

 (1851) " It may, however, be traced back to the same year as " if . lugens Pall., viz, 

 to 1833, when it occurs in Gloger's "Aband. Vogel," as cited above. 



