14 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Alaska, says of this wagtail: "Only one specimen was seen on the- 

 Alaska side and that at Wales on June 23. While travelling down the 

 coast by dog sled I found a mud nest in an abandoned igloo. The 

 native with me told me it was the nest of a little bird 'all same snow- 

 bird, little longer'. It was similar to the nest which I found in the 

 cliff along Providence Bay, but I was unable to carry it with me for 

 possible identification." 



N. G. Buxton (J. A. Allen, 1905) found Swinhoe's wagtail abundant 

 around Gichiga and Marcova, in northeastern Siberia, where 17 speci- 

 mens were collected ; he says in his notes : "Tlie first birds arrive the 

 middle of May, but they do not become common before June 1. Before 

 and after the nesting time they are seen in twos and threes about the 

 houses and along the river banks and seacoast, but they never collect in 

 flocks like the Yellow Wagtails, and are seldom seen far back on the 

 tundra. They nest in the crevices in the banks of the streams and 

 along the seacoast and on the ground in the grassy places along the 

 streams. They are good songsters, singing especially while on the 

 wing. They begin to depart the latter part of August and are seldom 

 seen after the middle of September." 



Migration. — Swinhoe's wagtail is evidently a common migrant 

 through China. Tsen-Hwang Shaw (1936) records it as passing 

 through Hopei Province in April and again in September and the 

 first part of October. "A few of these birds winter in some warm 

 places within the territory of Hopei province." Vaughan and Jones 

 (1913) write: 



The Streak-eyed Wagtail is an exceedingly common bird of passage at Hong 

 Kong, Macao, and on the Kwang Tung coast generally. Although appearing as 

 early as August 9 on migration, the latter part of September or early October is 

 the more usual time for their advent, when immense numbers may be seen on the 

 cricket-ground and in the Naval dockyard and elsewhere on the island of 

 Hong Kong. The birds on their passage usually roost in the trees, and as many as 

 fifty were observed to crowd themselves, with much bickering, into a small tree 

 in the Naval dockyard. They leave again on the spring migration in April, and 

 probably only breed in the far north of Asia ; they do not occur inland, so that 

 their migration is along the coast-line. 



Johan Koren, collecting for Thayer and Bangs (1914) , reported that 

 "Swinhoe's wagtail arrived at Nijni Kolymsk, on May 15, 1912, and in 

 the autumn of 1911 was observed as late as Sept. 21." 



Nesting. — Aside from the probable nests mentioned by Messrs. 

 Hersey and Bailey, no nest seems to have been found in Alaska, but 

 several have been found in Siberia. Thayer and Bangs (1914) say 

 that "a nest with a set of six eggs was taken at Nijni Kolymsk, June 

 11, 1912. It was built under the roof of a log cabin in the village." 



Mr. Bailey (1926) writes: "A nest was found July 5 with five 

 badly incubated eggs, in a little crevice in a crumbling rock cliff 



