WHITE WAGTAIL 3 



and proportions, with black-streaked brown back, conspicuous black 

 crown and sides of head, separated by a broad pale yellow superciliary 

 stripe, and pale yellow underparts. The striking head pattern and 

 yellow underparts should make it easy to be recognized. Length about 

 6 inches. 



Fall and winter. — David and Oustalet (1877) state that in China 

 at the beginning of the winter cold it settles in gardens and brushwood- 

 covered places, and La Touche (1925), quoting the experience of the 

 Bailey Willis Expedition in 1903-4, states that in the Chili-Shansi 

 Mountains in winter "singly or in pairs they are met in almost every 

 gulch, flitting in and out among the boulders and rugged ledges along 

 the brooks." 



DISTEIBUTION 



Summer range. — Siberia from the Urals to Bering Sea, north to 

 about 70° in the Yenisei Valley, south to the Altai, Sayansk, Baikal, 

 and Stanovoi Mountains. 



Winter range. — North China and Korea. Occasional in the Ural 

 Mountains and stated to occur on passage in the Crimea. 



Casual records. — Italy, Austria. 



Family MOTACILLIDAE : Wagtails and Pipits 



MOTACILLA ALBA ALBA Linnaeus 



WHITE WAGTAIL 



Contributed by Beknard William Tucker 



HABITS 



The white wagtail is an irregular, but apparently not really very 

 rare, visitor to east Greenland, where it has even bred occasionally, 

 and it has been recorded once on the west coast. Winge in his "Gr0n- 

 lands Fugle" (1898) was able to quote three records, which include the 

 still unique one for the west coast just mentioned. This refers to a 

 female from Godthaab sent by Holb0ll to the Copenhagen Museum in 

 1849. The other two refer to Angmagsalik, and it is from this locality, 

 the site of the only considerable settlement on the east coast, that in- 

 formation as to the status of the white wagtail in Greenland is chiefly 

 derived. This is due in the main to the careful records of Johan Peter- 

 sen, the colony superintendent from 1894 to 1915, which are dealt with 

 by Helms in his account of "The Birds of Angmagsalik" (1926). 

 Petersen first observed a white wagtail at Angmagsalik in the spring 

 of 1895, and this constitutes one of the records quoted by Winge. "In 

 1899 it was seen every day during nesting time in July-August, and 

 on August 21st Petersen saw a young bird. It appeared for the last 



