N. F. TICEHURST : YELLOW WAGTAILS. 135 



which the moiilt has progressed. The Wag-tails as a whole, 

 too, seem prone to a certain amount of individual variation, 

 particularly in the distribution and intensity of colour of 

 the lighter ]3arts of their plumage. It is difficult, there- 

 fore, to lay down hard and fast distinctions between the 

 young of the two species at this season, but from the 

 examination of a good series the following points may be 

 enumerated as being pretty constant throughout : — In 

 31. rati the throat and upper breast are a warm pinkish 

 buff, and may have some of the darker feathers of the 

 first plumage still showing along the sides and below if 

 the moult is not complete. Below the base of the 

 mandible the colour is often inclined to be paler, but is 

 never white. 



In M. flava flava, the throat in the majority of sjiecimens 

 is white, but it may be mixed with a few yellowish feathers. 

 On the breast the white shades gradually into pinkish Ijuff, 

 with a good many yellow or ashy-brown feathers inter- 

 mingled, and so on the belly into a purer yellow, which 

 varies in intensity enormously in individuals of both 

 species. The eye-stripes are pinkish buff or huffish white 

 in all the M. rail I have examined, while in the other 

 species they are never of this colour, but vary from 

 yellowish white to almost pure white. 



These characters, besides being the most constant, are 

 useful ones in the field, as when the observer has once got 

 them firmly fixed in his head he can be almost certain of 

 picking out, with the help of a good glass, the young Blue- 

 headed Wagtails in a mixed flock. 



The tints of the back show a great deal of variation 

 within small limits, and are dependent on the stage to 

 which the moult has advanced. On the whole, the head 

 and back of M. rail are inclined to a warmer tint of brown 

 than those of M. f. flava — almost a clove-brown on the 

 heads of some specimens, and with a tinge of yellow if the 

 bird is only just beginning to moult. In M. flava flava 

 the tint is decidedly colder and a more greenish-brown, 

 and the green of the rump seems to be more decided in 

 most specimens. 



The Blue-headed Wagtail has now been recorded from 

 most of the southern and eastern counties of England, 

 several times from Scotland, and from Derby, Cumberland 

 and the Shetlands, but its occurrence in Ireland is doubtful. 



