212 BRITISH BIRDS. 



5. MOTACILLA FliAYA EAYI (Bp.j. 



Yellow Wagtail. 



Buclytes Rayi Bonaparte, " Geogr. and Comp. List of B. 



Europe and N. Amer.," p. 18 (1838 — based on Gould's 



B. Europe, II., PI. 145 — British Islands). 



As every ornithologist knows, the Yellow Wagtail 

 which commonly breeds in England is easily distinguished 

 from the forms of continental Europe b}^ its greenish 

 crown, yellow forehead and superciliarj" line. Outside 

 the British Isles this form evidently breeds in small 

 numbers in the coast-regions of Western France. The 

 alleged breeding in Portugal requires, I should say, 

 confirmation. 



[It is well known that 31. flava flava has been found 

 breeding in England, but these occurrences are apparently 

 rare and irregular. As recorded by Mr. Butterfield in the 

 " Zoologist," 1902, p. 232, a M. flava heema was shot on 

 April 20th, 1898, near Rottingdean, in Sussex, but there 

 is no reason whatever to imagine that the birds which 

 have bred in England belong to this form which inhabits 

 Western Siberia !] 



6. MOTACILLA ALBA LUGTJBRIS Temm. 



Pied Wagtail. 



2Iotacilla luguhris Temminck, " Man. d'Orn.," I., p. 253 



(1820 — ex Pallas MS. The description suits our British 



bird well, but it seems that Temminck mixed up with it 



some Asiatic form sent to him by Pallas). 



The entirely black upper surface, as everyone knows, 

 distinguishes this form from the White Wagtail, M. alba 

 alba. Outside the British Isles the Pied Wagtail breeds, 

 according to CoUett, sometimes in Norway near Stavanger 

 and Bergen, and on the western coast of Holland, Belgium 

 and France. 



[_M. alba alba breeds here and there in Great Britain and. 



