152 REVIEW OF AMERICAN BIRDS. [PART I. 



Motacilla alt>a. 



Motacilla alba, Linn, Syst. Nat. 12tli ed. 1766, 331.— Keys. & Blas. 

 Wirb. Europ. 1840, xlix, and 174. — Degland, Orn. Europ. 1, 1849, 

 433. — Reinhardt, Isis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). — Newton, Baring- 

 Gould's Iceland, 1863, App. ("rather plentiful")- 



Figure : Gould, Birds Europe, 143. 



Hab. Continental Europe, rarer in England ; Iceland ; Greenland (only two 

 specimens seen) ; Siberia ; Syria ; Nubia. 



(9410, %, Niirnberg.) Forehead as far back as above the eyes, with sides 

 of head and neck, white ; the remaining portion of head and neck above and 

 below to the jugulum, black ; the rest of under parts white. Upper parts ashy 

 gray, including rump ; the upper tail coverts tinged with black. Wings with 

 two conspicuous bands and the outer edges of the secondaries white. Tail 

 feathers black ; the outer two white, edged with black internally. Bill and 

 legs black. 



Length, 7.30 ; wing, 3.45 ; tail, 3.90 ; bill from nostril, .37 ; tarsus, .86 ; 

 hind toe and claw, .50. 



Motacilla yarrelli, a closely allied species, by some considered a 

 variety only, differs in having the rump black, the ashy of the back 

 glossed with blackish, and with the black edging of the lateral tail 

 feathers broader. 



I have given a description of this species on account of its occur- 

 rence in Greenland, and thus a member of the Fauna of North 

 America. The specimen described is from Niirnberg, Germany. 



ANTHUS, Bechst. 



Antkus, Bechst. Gemein. Naturg. Deutschl. 1802 (Agassiz). (Type 

 Alauda spiuoletta). — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 232. 



I do not find the generic characters employed by European authors 

 to subdivide Anthus very satisfactory or constant. They consist 

 mainly in the varying size of the bill, the relative proportion of the 

 innermost secondaries to the longer primaries, and that of the hind 

 claw to the toe proper. In examining series of the North American 

 species I find considerable variations in this respect among difierent 

 individuals : in Neocorys, for instance, one specimen has the longest 

 secondary equal to the 6th primary ; in another nearly equal to the 

 4th. Similar differences occur in Anthus ludoviciamis, where also 

 the hind claw is sometimes shorter than the toe itself, sometimes 

 longer. 



The most permanent and appreciable characters seem to be those 

 based on the length of the outer primaries : thus in one group, to 

 which we may restrict the name Anthus, this tip is formed by the 



