1. MOTACILLA. 505 



an oblique mark of black up the inner web ; the penultimate 

 feather white, black for half the outer web, and with a broad oblique 

 black mark up the inner web, the adjoining part of the white feather 

 being also freckled with black ; crown of head rather more olive 

 than the back, the feathers with a concealed subterminal shade of 

 black ; base of forehead and a broad ej-ebrow pale yellow ; lores 

 ashy ; ear-coverts pale yellow, with dusky tips, the lunder margin 

 dusky, along the lower edge a black line ; cheeks and throat pale 

 yellow, inclining to tawny on the lower throat, fore neck, and chest ; 

 the centre of the breast and abdomen pale yellow ; the under tail- 

 coverts white ; sides of the body and flanks ashy grey ; thighs 

 yellowish; under wing-coverts and axillaries white with dusky 

 bases ; quills dusky below, white along the inner web. Total 

 length 7-2 inches, culmen O-f), wing 3-5, tail 3-5, tarsus 1. 



This plumage lasts until the following early spring, becoming gra- 

 dually much worn and abraded, the back getting quite brown in some 

 examples, while the white edges to the wing-eoverts become frayed 

 almost to the verge of disappearance. A specimen collected by Mr. 

 Blanford on the 9th of March, in Baluchistan, is only just com- 

 mencing the spring moult with a renewal of the inner secondaries, 

 which are broadly margined with ashy white on the outer web ; a 

 few bright yellow feathers are also appearing on the ear-coverts, eye- 

 brow, and chin. 



On old males with yellow heads in breeding-plumage there are 

 often seen blackish tips to the feathers, especially towards the 

 occiput. These males are very probably birds of the previous year, 

 whose fresh-moulted feathers have blackish ends which gradually 

 wear off. 



Many specimens are to be found with grey backs and without the 

 black collar. Mr. Brooks thinks that this collar has been missed in 

 the spring moult ; but, in my opinion, it is not put on by a moult, 

 but is assumed by a change of feather, as in some of the Pied 

 Wagtails. 



Adnlt male in hreedmri-plumage (Viski, Petchora River, Jime 17 ; 

 H. Seebohm). General colour above dark ashy grey, the hinder neck 

 and upper mantle black, forming a broad collar round the hind neck, 

 separating the head from the back ; upper tail-coverts black, the 

 lateral ones externally white ; lesser wing-coverts ashy ; median 

 and greater coverts blackish brown, broadly tipped with'whito and 

 narrowly edged with ashy ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and 

 quills blackish brown, narrowly margined with ashy, the inner- 

 most secondaries blacker and rather broadly margined with white ; 

 first primary margined with ashy white; tail-feathers black, the' 

 third one slightly tipped with white, the penultimate and outer 

 feather white, with an oblique mark of black along the inner web ; 

 head all round, throat, and under surface of body brilliant yellow,' 

 with black tips to a few of the occipital feathers; lores whitish; 

 sides of the body dark ashy, the sides of the neck and sides of 

 upper breast black ; thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts yellow, the 

 latter becoming white at their ends ; axiUaries and under win"-- 



