152 REVIEW OF AMERICAN BIRDS. [PART I. 
Motacilla alba. 
Motacilla alba, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, 331.—Kerys. & Bras. 
Wirb. Europ. 1840, xlix, and 174.—Dxc.ianp, Orn. Europ. I, 1849, 
433. — ReinHARDT, Isis, 1861, 6 (Greenland).— Newton, Baring- 
Gould’s Iceland, 1863, App. (‘rather plentiful”). 
Figure: Govuxp, Birds Europe, 143. 
Hab. Continental Europe, rarer in England ; Iceland; Greenland (only two 
specimens seen) ; Siberia; Syria; Nubia. 
(9410, 4, Niirnberg.) Forehead as far back as above the eyes, with sides 
of. head and neck, white; the remaining portion of head and neck above and 
below to the jugulum, black»; the rest of under parts white. Upper parts ashy 
gray, including rump; the upper tail coverts tinged with black. Wings with 
two conspicuous bands and the outer edges of the secondaries white. Tail 
feathers black; the outer two white, edged with black internally. Bill and 
legs black. 
Length, 7.30; wing, 3.45; tail, 3.90; bill from nostril, .37; tarsus, .86; 
hind toe and claw, .50. 
Motacilla yarrelli, a closely allied species, by some considered a 
variety only, differs in having the rump black, the ashy of the back 
glossed with blackish, and with the black edging of the lateral tail 
feathers broader. 
I have given a description of this species on account of its oceur- 
rence in Greenland, and thus a member of the Fauna of North 
America. The specimen described is from Niirnberg, Germany. 
ANTHUS, Becusr. 
Anthus, Becust. Gemein. Naturg. Deutschl. 1802 (Agassiz). (Type 
Alauda spinoletta).—Batrp, Birds N. Am. 1858, 232. 
I do not find the generic characters employed by European authors 
to subdivide Anthus very satisfactory or constant. They consist 
mainly in the varying size of the bill, the relative proportion of the 
innermost secondaries to the longer primaries, and that of the hind 
claw to the toe proper. In examining series of the North American 
species I find considerable variations in this respect among different 
individuals: in Neocorys, for instance, one specimen has the longest 
secondary equal to the 6th primary ; in another nearly equal to the 
4th. Similar differences occur in Anthus ludovicianus, where also 
the hind claw is sometimes shorter than the toe itself, sometimes 
longer. 
The most permanent and appreciable characters seem to be those 
based on the length of the outer primaries: thus in one group, to 
which we may restrict the name Anthus, this tip is formed by the, 
