12 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUIVI 



Winter range. — Soutliern Europe and Africa south to Kenya and' 

 Uganda, Belgian Congo (Uele River), Ubangi Shari, Sierra Leone, 

 and Liberia; also Madeira, Palestine, southern Arabia, and Iraq. 



/Spring Tnigration. — Leaves Equatorial Africa in March. Present 

 in Egypt until early April (late date. May 2) . Passage through Brit- 

 ish Isles mid-March to early in June. Passage of males begins March 

 in Helgoland, that of females from April 9. Reaches breeding grounds 

 in Germany and Holland in March-April, southern Finland begin- 

 ning of April, and far north of Europe early in May (first arrivals 

 recorded at Vadso, northern Norway, May 4, and at Ust Zylma, north- 

 ern Russia, May 12). Arrives southern coastal districts of Iceland 

 at the end of April and beginning of May (early date, April 15) . 



Fall migration. — ^Leaves Iceland in August and September (re- 

 corded Westmann Islands until October 10). Passage in British Isles 

 mid- August to early in October, in north and central Europe August 

 to October. Even as far north as south Finland some are still passing 

 even in November. Arrives Egypt early October (earliest date, 

 October 7). Reaches Equatorial Africa October. 



Casual records. — Jan Mayen, Azores. 



MOTACILLA ALBA OCULARIS Swinhoe 



SWINHOE'S WAGTAIL 



HABITS 



This is a northern Siberian race of the common white wagtail of 

 Europe, from which it diJffers in having a black or dusty streak through 

 the eye and having much more white on the wing coverts. 



Its known breeding range in nortJiern Siberia seems to extend from 

 the Yenisei and Lena Rivers eastward to Plover Bay on the Chukotski 

 Peninsula, the nearest point to Alaska, and southward in the interior 

 to Lake Baikal. It is an extremely rare bird in Alaska, and some of 

 the published sight records are open to doubt. Dr. E, W. Nelson ( 1 887 ) 

 writes : "Although this bird has been taken repeatedly at Plover Bay, 

 Siberia, and thence throughout a large portion of Northeastern Asia, 

 including China and Formosa, to the Lake Baikal region, it appears to 

 be almost unknown in Alaska. In fact its claim as a bird of the Terri- 

 tory rests upon the capture of a single specimen, a young bird in sum- 

 mer plumage, by Captain Kellett and Lieutenant Wood in 'Northwest 

 America', as recorded in the Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds, X, 473." The 1931 

 Qieck-list gives two Alaska records, Attu Island and mouth of the 

 Yukon, both sight records. The former is based on the following- 

 statement by Lucien M. Turner (1886) : 



I was looking out of my window on the morning of May 14, 1881, watching the 

 vessel, which was to take me to Unalashka Island, enter the harbor. I saw a bird 



