298 motacillid^:. 



This bird much resembles M. citreola, but is much yellower above, 

 the entire head seldom becomes uniform yellow as iu that species, 

 and there is never any black band on the mantle. 



837. Motacilla citreola. The Yellmv-headed Wagtail. 



Motacilla citreola, rail. Rets. Rvss. Reichs,' iii, p. 696 (1776) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x, p. 503. 

 Budytes citreola (Pall.), Bhjth, Cat. p. 138 ; Hursf. fy M. Cat. i, 



p. 352 Cpt.) ; Brooks, J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 82 : Scully, 8. F. iv, 



p. 151 ; Hume, Cat. no. 594 bis ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 69 ; 



Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 452; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 24l. 

 ? Budvtes calcarata, Hodqs., As. Res. xix, p. 190 (1836) ; Hume, 



S. P. vii, p. 401. 



Coloration. In normal winter plumage the sexes are alike. The 

 forehead, a broad supercilium, the sides of the head, and the whole 

 lower plumage are yellow, the ear-coverts more or less streaked 

 with dusky and with a blackish line bordering them below ; lores 

 dusky ; the sides of the throat and breast with more or less con- 

 cealed black bases to the feathers ; the upper plumage ashy grey, 

 tinged with green on the head ; the wings dark brown, the coverts 

 and tertiaries very broadly edged with white, the other quills 

 narrowly ; tail black, the two outer pairs of feathers nearly entirely 

 white. 



In summer plumage the sexes are also alike except that the fe- 

 male is slightly paler ; the entire head and neck become deep yellow, 

 the feathers of the crown wdth tiny black tips which soon wear off; 

 entire lower plumage the same deep yellow ; the yellow on the 

 hind neck is bounded by a broad black band and the upper plumage 

 is tinged with bluish ashy ; the other parts remain unchanged. 



The young bird is ashy brown above with very narrow paler 

 margins to the feathers ; a very broad pale fulvous supercilium, 

 bordered above, on the sides of the crown, by a black band ; lores 

 and ear-coverts streaked with dusky and fulvous ; the lower plumage 

 a very pale fulvous with a gorget of black spots down the sides of 

 the throat and across the upper breast ; wings and tail as in the 

 adult. The young bird probably assumes the adult plumage at the 

 first spring moult. 



Bill, legs, and claws black ; iris dark brown (Bingham). 



Length about 7 ; tail 3*3; wing 3-5; tarsus 1-05; bill from 

 gape *8 ; hind claw - 5. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the greater portion of the Em- 

 pire, descending in India to about the latitude of Belgaum and 

 in the eastern part of the Empire as far as Manipur. This bird 

 summers in Central and Northern Asia, and it also occurs in 

 Europe. 



