GREY WAGTAIL. 207 
greenish yellow on the rump and upper tail-coverts; the wings and wing- 
coverts are blackish brown, the latter with pale margins ; the secondaries, 
including the innermost, with the basal half white and the outer web of 
the latter margined with buffish white; the six centre tail-feathers are 
brownish black margined with greenish yellow, the outermost feather 
on each side white; the next two with the inner web white, but the greater 
portion of the outer web brownish black; a narrow white eye-stripe ex- 
tends from the base of the bill to about half an inch behind the eye, and 
another stripe of the same colour extends downwards from the base of the 
lower mandible along the sides of the throat and the upper breast, which 
are black; the remainder of the underparts are canary-yellow. Bill 
black; legs, feet, and claws brown; irides dark brown. The female closely 
resembles the male, but is rather duller in colour, and generally has the 
throat nearly white; but occasionally more or less dark brown feathers 
appear, principally on the sides. 
After the autumn moult there is very little difference between the sexes ; 
the upper parts are slightly suffused with olive, and the throat and upper 
breast are white. Young in first plumage and birds of the year closely 
resemble their parents in winter plumage ; but the upper parts are suffused 
with sandy brown, and the eye-stripe and the underparts are suffused with 
buff. After the spring moult, when the black throat is assumed, each black 
feather has a white margin, broad in males of the year, but narrow in adults. 
In the latter these margins disappear almost entirely during summer. 
The Grey Wagtail of both sexes, and at every age and season, may 
be distinguished from all the other British Wagtails by its uniting the 
characters of a grey back with a green rump and upper tail-coverts. It has 
no very close ally ; but its nearest relation is probably M. flaviventris, from 
Madagascar, which differs in having the black on the throat confined to a 
crescentic gorget, and in having the upper tail-coverts black. 
