202 



MOTACILLINJE. 



WAGTAILS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



The family of Motacillinae, which on the one hand is very 

 intimately connected with the Alaudinse, and on the other with 

 the Saxicolinae, is composed of the genera Budytes, Motacilla, 

 Enicurns, and Lessonia. In Britain there are representatives 

 of the first two of these genera. 



The bill is of moderate length, straight, slender, rather 

 broader than high at the base, compressed beyond the nostrils ; 

 the upper mandible has its dorsal outline straight and a little 

 declinate, towards the end slightly convex, the tip slightly de- 

 flected, narrow, with the notches slight or obsolete, the edges 

 slightly inflected and overlapping towards the end ; the lower 

 mandible has the angle rather long and narrow, the dorsal out- 

 line ascending and nearly straight, the edges sharp and in- 

 flected, the tip acute ; the gape-line straight. Both mandibles 

 are concave and narrow within, with a median prominent line. 

 The tongue is very slender, emarginate, and finely papillate at 

 the base, flat, and tapering to a slit point. The cesophagus is 

 of uniform diameter without dilatation ; the proventriculus 

 with simple oblong glandules ; the stomach a gizzard of con- 

 siderable power, roundish or elliptical, compressed, its lateral 

 muscles distinct, and the tendons rather large, but not radiated; 

 its cuticular lining thin, with large longitudinal rugae. The in- 

 testine is short, and of moderate width ; the coeca very small 

 and cylindrical. See Plate XIII, Fig. 5. 



The nostrils are elliptical or oblong, in the lower and fore 

 part of the nasal depression, which is feathered at the base. 

 The eyes are of moderate size ; the external aperture of the 

 ear large and transversely oval. 



The general form is slender ; the head oblong, the neck 

 rather short. The feet of ordinary length, slender ; the tarsus 



