136 BRITISH BIRDS. 



As would be expected by its geogTaphical range, it lias 

 occurred more frequently in the British Isles than any 

 other of the following- forms, and I shall g-ive later a more 

 detailed account of its status in this countr}'. 



2. Stkes' Wagtail. Motacilla flava heema Sykes. 



This form represents the above in western and central 

 Siberia, and winters in Afghanistan and India. It 

 occasionally occurs in western Europe and the countries 

 bordering the Mediterranean during migration. It differs 

 from M. jiava flava in having a pearl-grey head and a 

 white face and ear-coverts, with a j)earl-gre3^ band through 

 the eye. 



A male of this race was obtained at Eottingdean, 

 Sussex, on April 20th, 1898, and is now in the Tring 

 Museum. It was recorded in the "Zoologist"'^ by Mr. 

 Butterfield. The male bird that was obtained with the 

 first Sussex nest of the Blue-headed Wagtail on 31st May, 

 1901, was said by Mr. Dresser to " come nearest to M. 

 ?)eema,"t but it could not to my mind be described as 

 ha'vdng white cheeks, and was without doubt, I consider, a 

 somewhat worn specimen of M. flava flava. So that the 

 only typical specimen of M.f. heema that has yet occm-red in 

 this country is the one in the Tring Museum. 



3. Grey-headed Wagtail. Motacilla flava borealis Sund. 



This is the race which breeds in northern Scandinavia, 

 Russia, and Siberia. It occurs on migration throughout 

 southern Eiu'ope, and winters in north-east Africa, India, 

 Ceylon, and Burma. The head and nape are a dark slaty- 

 blue ; the lores and feathers romid the eye and ear-coverts 

 darker, almost black ; the sides of the neck are slaty-blue, 

 the cheeks and chin white, and the eye-stripe is absent. 



Of this form, as might have been expected by its 

 distribution, a number of specimens have now been obtained 

 in the British Isles. Two birds that occurred on the 

 Pentland Skerries have been assigned to it by Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown,:]: the first being obtained on May 19th, 1888, while 

 the second was seen by the same man who shot the first, 

 on May 3rd of the following year. 



* " Zoologist," 1902, p. 232. f T.c, 1901, p. 389. 

 t " ^ Vertebrate Fauna of the Orkney Islands," p. 108. 



