MOTACILLIN.^. Ill 



MOTACILLIN^. 



First primary obsolete ; bill narrow and notched ; tertials reaching 

 very nearly or quite to the end of the wing. 



The Motacillinpe scarcely number 100 species^ but they are nearly 

 cosmopolitan^ being absent only from the Pacific Islands. Seven 

 species have been recorded from the Japanese Empire. 



83. MOTACILLA LUGENS. 

 (KAMTSCHATKAN WAGTAIL.) 



MotaciUa luriens, Pallas, Jidc Kittlitz, Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte dor 

 Yogel, p. 16 (1832). 



The Kamtschatkan Wagtail always has the sides of the head white, 

 with a black band through the eye ; and there is always much white 

 on the inner webs of the first and second as well as of the remaining 

 primaries. 



Figures: Seebohm, Ibis, 1878, pi. 9 (male in first summer plu- 

 mage) . 



The Kamtschatkan Wagtail was originally described from ex- 

 amples obtained in Kamtschatka. Under the impression that white 

 secondaries were the peculiar character which distinguished the 

 Japanese Wagtail, I named the bird in its first summer plumage (in 

 which the secondaries are grey) MotaciUa amurensis (Seebolim, Ibis, 

 1878, p. 345). Soon afterwards I discovered that black cheeks were 

 the peculiar character which distinguished the Japanese Wagtail 

 both summer and winter; and finding a series of Wagtails from 

 Japan with white secondaries and white cheeks, I named them 

 MotaciUa blakistoni (Seebohm, Ibis, 1883, p. 91). In 1884 Captain 

 Blakiston discovered that my MotaciUa amurensis was the same 

 species in first summer plumage which in the following summer and 

 for the rest of its life became my MotaciUa blakistoni. In 1885 both 

 these names were shown to be synonyms of the MotaciUa lugens of 

 Kittlitz (Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. x. p. 474). 



I have a large series of this species from the Kurile Islands, col- 

 lected by Mr. Snow ; from Yezzo, collected by Captain Blakiston ; 



