18 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



nest about houses. Building begins in the first half of May. I found a pair on 

 May 14th that were already busy with their nest under the projection of the 

 roof of a house in Petropawlowsk. In Klutschi I found a nest on the roof of a 

 native hut, another on a balagan (a drying rack for salmon), and a third on 

 a boat drawn up on the shore of a river. The nests are large and firm, and are 

 similar to those of the white wagtail. I collected three nests which are now in 

 the Swedish National Museum. The three are almost entirely lined with animal 

 hair, generally from reindeer. Scarcely a feather occurs in any of the nests. 



The eggs are laid at the end of May. I found two nests with freshly laid eggs 

 on the 30th and 31st of May near Klutschi. The first pair, whose nest was col- 

 lected on the 30th of May, immediately began to build a new one about 20 

 meters from the site of the earlier one in a drawn-up skiff, and had on June 12th 

 a complete nest with five eggs. The building consumed 9 days. The eggs agree 

 In color and size with those of the white wagtail. 



The wagtail, except Hirttndo rustica tytlcri, is the only small bird in Kam- 

 chatka that seeks human companionship, and nests in houses. 



This form breeds commonly on all the Kurile Islands, according to Yama- 

 shina. The wagtail is the first of all the birds to arrive in the Kuriles in the 

 spring. After the young have flown, the wagtails are found in family groups 

 along the seashore. 



Field marks. — According to Bernard W. Tucker the male in breed- 

 ing plumage differs from M. a. alba and ocularis in having a black 

 back. He says that it is much like the pied wagtail {M. a. yarreUii) 

 of the British Isles but differs in having the secondaries wholly or 

 largely white and a black streak through the eye as in ocularis and 

 that the female and the male in winter have gray backs, or largely 

 gray, and could not be distinguished from ocularis in the field ; indeed 

 many specimens in the hand appear to him to be separable only with 

 difficulty. 



Winter. — The habits are similar to those of other races of M. alba. 

 La Touche (1930) states that in China it is found on wet fields, marshy 

 ground, and mud flats. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. — Kamchatka, Kurile Islands, Sakhalin, Yezzo, 

 and north Hondo. Westerly limits somewhat uncertain; recorded 

 from Askold Island and the Amur ; but "apparently not on the Amur," 

 according to Hartert and Steinbacher (1938). 



Winter range. — Southeast China (Lower Yangtse, Fokhien, and 

 Kwangtung) , south Japan, Riu-Kiu Islands, and Formosa. 



Spring migration. — Data on migration are summarized by Paludan 

 (1932) . Noted passing at Shaweishan, off the mouth of the Yangtse, 

 from March 8 to May 8; arrives Kuriles from early March, but said 

 not to do so in Kamchatka until April-May. 



Fall migratio7i. — Gone from Kuriles by end October; recorded at 

 Ussuria and Shaweishan in October and Lower Yangtse in November. 



