122 YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



the valley of the Lower Volga, the Caspian region, and Turkestan 

 as far east as the Altai Mountains ; the migrations of this section 

 reaching along the eastern side of Africa as far as Natal. In Eastern 

 Asia it is represented by M. taivana. 



The nest, built in the latter part of April and generally well con- 

 cealed, is placed in a depression or a small furrow of the ground in 

 a meadow or corn-field ; sometimes in a bank, or at the foot of a wall 

 among the long rank herbage. Even in the same locality there is 

 considerable variation in the materials employed ; moss and dry 

 grass being generally used for the exterior, while the lining may be 

 of feathers, hair, rabbit's-down, or fine roots. The eggs, 4-6, are 

 greyish-white mottled with clay-brown, and have often some black 

 hair-streaks : average measurements 78 by "56 in. By the end of 

 May the young are able to fly, and a second brood is sometimes 

 reared in the season, The food consists of the small thin-shelled 

 molluscs which the bird finds among the water-meadows, and various 

 kinds of insects ; and it is as partial as the Blue-headed Wagtail 

 to the proximity of grazing cattle. In its note and in the bold 

 curves of its flight, it also resembles that species. 



Adult male in breeding-plumage : lores, ear-coverts and back, 

 greenish-olive ; the forehead yellower ; a sulphur-yellow streak over 

 the eye and ear-coverts on each side; wing-coverts and quills dusky- 

 brown, tipped and margined with pale buff; tail-feathers blackish- 

 brown, except the two outer pairs which are white, merely edged with 

 black on the inner webs ; under parts rich sulphur-yellow ; bill, legs 

 and feet black. Length about 6 in. ; wing 3-1 in. The female is 

 browner on the upper parts, and the eye-streak and under parts are 

 less yellow. In autumn the adults of both sexes become much 

 paler. The young in the first and nestling-plumage, which is only 

 worn for a short time, are greenish-brown on the upper parts, and 

 buft" on the breast, much resembling young Pipits ; later they 

 become yellow on the vent and under parts, and gradually assimi- 

 late themselves to their parents., but the sides of the neck and the 

 breast are spotted with dark brown for some time. 



For the Wagtails which exhibit a prevalence of yellow in their 

 plumage and have also a longer hind-claw than the Black-and-white 

 Wagtails, Cuvier established the genus Budyfcs ; and as the Grey 

 Wagtail presented intermediate characters, Kaup invented for it the 

 genus Calohatcs. 



