Dr. E. Hartert on Motacilla subpersonata. 99 



have been erroneously stated to come from Morocco, as it 

 is a specimen of Motacilla personata, under which name it 

 was entered in the ' Catalogue of Birds ' (x. p. 481), although 

 the correctness of the locality was doubted by Dr. Sharpe. 



Mr. Meade-Waldo, when describing his new Wagtail, 

 compared it with M . personata from Turkestan aud called it 

 Motacilla subpersonata (Bull. B. 0. C. xii. p. 27, November 

 1901). In the 'Ibis/ 1903, p. 208, he again compared his 

 new form with M. personata, figuring its head side by side 

 with the head of M. alba, which, however, was called 

 M. personata by mistake. 



In my opinion, it would have been better to have compared 

 M. subpersonata with M. alba than with M. personata. 

 With the latter it only agrees in having more black on the 

 head than M. alba, but the black is very differently distri- 

 buted. From M. personata it differs, moreover, in the 

 coloration of the wing-coverts, which are narrowly margined 

 with greyish white, instead of being so widely bordered with 

 white as to cover the dark bases, and also in the lesser size 

 and lesser extent of the black on the nape. With M. alba 

 the Moroccan Wagtail agrees in every way except in the 

 coloration of the sides of the head. There is a narrow black 

 line from the base of the bill to the eye and another, some- 

 times irregular and ill-defined, from the base of the bill 

 under the ear-coverts to the sides of the neck. Besides, the 

 black of the throat runs up in a wide band on the sides of 

 the head, where it is connected by a black line with the 

 black of the nape. It is thus certain that M. subpersonata 

 is only the Moroccan representative of M. alba, to which it 

 is more closely allied than to M. personata. 



On the other hand, M. subpersonata might as well be 

 compared with one as the other, for my studies have led 

 me to the conclusion that all the black-and-white Wagtails 

 are geographical representatives (subspecies) of one species, 

 which, of course, must bear the oldest name Motacilla 

 alba. Thus M. subpersonata will stand in my forthcoming 

 number of ' Palsearctic Birds ' as M. alba subpersonata, and 

 M. personata as M. alba personata. 



n2 



