138 Capt. G. E. Shelley on Egyptian Ornithology. 



by the side of his '' dahabeah/' Its sociability was the chief 

 cause of its safety ; for the land being crowded by natives hauling 

 at the boat prevented the possibility of my shooting it on several 

 occasions. Its food consists chiefly of a small green beetle. 

 It breeds in April. This bird must not be confounded with 

 M. vidua of South Africa. 



113. MoTACiLLA SULPHUREA, Bechst. Grey Wagtail. 



Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1867, p. 63) says of this species that 

 he saw it at Cairo in January ; and Dr. A. L. Adams (Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 22) mentions that it was met with in its usual retreats as far 

 south as Nubia. 



114. BuDYTES FLAVA (L.) . Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail. 

 This and the next two species are generally considered to be 



mere varieties of the same birds ; and in large series of specimens 

 it is diflScult, if not impossible, to say where the one species ends 

 and the other begins. However this may be with birds from other 

 localities, in Egypt and Nubia they appear to keep perfectly 

 distinct. The true M. flava of Linnaeus I only met with about 

 the middle of April in Nubia, travelling north in large flocks, 

 out of which I killed more than twenty specimens without find- 

 ing the least variety of plumage, while I had found M. cinereo- 

 capilla one of the most abundant birds in Egypt in March, paired 

 and apparently breeding there at that time. The true M. flava 

 may be most readily distinguished by a distinct white streak, which 

 passes through the eye, and which is absent in the next variety. 



115. BuDYTES FLAVA (L.), var. cinereocapilla, Savi. 



This is the most abundant form of Yellow Wagtail in Egypt. 

 It is very Pipit-like in its habits, and is more frequently met 

 with in pairs and flocks in the fields than by the water's edge. 

 It breeds in March. 



116. BuDYTES FLAVA (L.), var. melanocephala, Savi. 



We met with this bird frequently in Nubia, about the middle 

 of April, in flocks among the herbage by the river-side. Al- 

 though we frequently shot specimens out of these flocks, we 

 never came across a grey-headed bird among them. They were 

 evidently migrating north at that season. 



