MOTACILLID.E — THE WAGTAILS. 



167 



They leave their breeding-places in October, collecting and moving in 

 small tiocks. 



Their eggs measure .79 of an inch in length and .59 in breadth. The 

 ground-color is of a grayish-white so thickly flecked with fine ash-colored 

 and black dots as to give the entire egg the effect of a uniform dark ashen 

 hue. 



Genus BUDYTES, Cuvier. 

 Budytes, Cuvier, R. A. 1817. (Type, Motacilla flava, Linn.) 



The recent discovery of a species 

 of yellow-bellied Wagtail in Norton 

 Sound, by the naturalists of the Eus- 

 sian Telegraph Expedition, adds an- 

 other member of an Old World fam- 

 ily to the list of American birds. 

 Much confusion exists as to the pre- 

 cise number of species in the genus, 

 some grouping together as varieties 

 what others consider as distinct spe- 

 cies. There is an unusual degree of 

 variation with age, sex, and season, 

 and this, combined with strongly 

 marked geographical peculiarities, ren- 

 ders the proper solution of tlie problem impossible to any but 

 ing access to laroe series. 



those hav- 



Budytes flava, Linn. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



Mofxtcilla flava, Linn. Syst. Nat. I (1706), 33. — Fin.sch & Hautlaitb, Vbgel Ostafrikas, 

 268. Budijtes fl,ava, Bon. (1838). — Middendorff, Sibirische Reise, II, ii (1852), 

 168. — Degland & Gerbe, Ornith. Europ. I (1867), 376. — Baird, Trans. Chicago 

 Acad. Sci. I, ii, p. 312, pi. xxx, fig. 1 ; 1869. — Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 

 1869, 127. — Tristram, Ibis, 1871, 231. — Finsch, 1872. 



Sp. Char. Description of specimen No. 45,912, taken at St. Michael's, Norton Sound, 

 June 6, 1866, by H. M. Bannister. Above, including edges of upper tail-coverts, rich 

 olive-green, the top and sides of the head and neck pure ash-gray ; chin and well-marked 

 stripe from nostrils over the eye to the nape, white ; all under parts rich yellow, tinged with 

 olive on the sides. Stripe from corner of mouth through the eye, and involving the ear- 

 coverts, blackish-ash. Feathers of wings and tail dark brown ; the coverts and seconda- 

 ries edged with olive (showing the obscure light wing-bars), the longest of the latter 

 edged externally with white ; innermost quills edged externally with white. Outer three 

 quills nearly equal and longest (the prolonged secondaries as long), the others graduating 

 less. Outer tail-feathers and shaft white ; the inner web edged externally with dusky, 



