130 YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



accidental occurrence in Italy, Sicily, and Malta ; while southward, 

 its migrations extend down the coast of W. Africa as far as the 

 Gaboon. A large and isolated colony is said to inhabit the valley 

 of the Lower Volga, the Caspian region, and Turkestan as far east 

 as the Altai Mountains ; the migrations of this section reaching 

 along the eastern side of Africa as far as Natal. In Eastern Asia 

 the representative species is M. taiva?m. 



The nest, built early in May and generally well concealed, is 

 placed in a depression or a small furrow of the ground in a meadow 

 or corn-field ; sometimes in a bank, or at the foot of a wall, among 

 the long rank herbage. Even in the same locality there is con- 

 siderable variation in the materials employed ; moss and dry grass 

 being generally used for the exterior, while the lining may be of 

 feathers, hair, rabbit's-down, or fine roots. The 4-6 eggs are 

 greyish white mottled with clay-brown, and often have some black 

 hair-streaks : measurements 78 by "56 in. A second brood is 

 sometimes reared in the season. The food consists of the small 

 thin-shelled molluscs found among water-meadows, and various 

 kinds of insects ; and the bird is as partial as the Blue-headed 

 Wagtail to the proximity of grazing cattle. In its note and in the 

 bold curves of its flight, it also resembles that* species ; it is, how- 

 ever, rather more addicted to perching on low bushes and fences. 



Adult male in breeding-plumage : lores, ear-coverts and back, 

 greenish-olive ; the forehead yellower ; a sulphur-yellow streak over 

 the eye and ear-coverts on each side ; wing-coverts and quills dusky- 

 brown, tipped and margined with pale buff; tail-feathers blackish- 

 brown, except the two outer pairs which are white, merely edged 

 with black on the inner webs ; under parts rich sulphur-yellow ; bill, 

 legs and feet black. Length about 6 "2 5 in. ; wing 3-15 in. The 

 female is browner on the upper parts, and the eye-streak and under 

 parts are less yellow. In autumn the adults of both sexes become 

 much paler. The young in the first and nestling-plumage, which is 

 only worn for a short time, are greenish-brown on the upper parts, 

 and buff on the breast, much resembling young Pipits ; later they 

 turn yellow on the vent and under parts, and gradually become like 

 their parents, though the sides of the neck and the breast are spotted 

 with dark brown for some time. 



For those Wagtails which exhibit a prevalence of yellow in their 

 plumage and have also a longer hind-claw than the Black-and-white 

 Wagtails, Cuvier established the genus Budytes ; and, inasmuch as 

 the Grey Wagtail presented intermediate characters, Kaup invented 

 for it the genus Calobates. 



