568 MOTACILLIDJ;. 



much less rich in colour, the back being tinged with darker 

 brown, and the lower surface of the body of a less brilliant 

 yellow. Young birds of the year, and the i^arents after the 

 moult, which immediately succeeds the breeding-season, re- 

 semble each other considerably ; the olivaceous band observed 

 in some across the breast, is, possibly, a sign of youth, and 

 probably remains till the first spring change. 



Having frequently examined specimens of our Wagtails in 

 the spring of the year, when they were assuming either the 

 change of colour, or the additional brilliancy of tint, peculiar 

 to the breeding-season, without finding any new feathers in 

 progress, I am induced to consider the vernal change in these 

 birds as so many instances of alteration effected in the colour 

 of the old feathers, and not a change of the feathers them- 

 selves ; but, as has been stated before (page 547), this 

 opinion must be considered to be still open to doubt. 



As regai-ds the trivial name to be properly applied to this 

 bird authorities have differed much. In 1834, Blyth (Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. vii. p. 342) suggested that Biidytes flavisslma was 

 better than B. Jiava (as in those days it was called), but not 

 in such a way as to allow the former to be adopted. In 

 1835, an anonymous writer cited it (Analyst, iii. p. 31) as 

 B. verna, Cuv. ; but Cuvier is not known to have bestowed 

 any such name upon it, and if he had we may be sure that 

 he did not discriminate between it and the true Motacilla 

 jiava, of which therefore B. verna would be a synonym, 

 while an author who does not give his own name is not 

 justified in giving one to what he deems a species. In 1840, 

 Temminck described it (Man. d'Orn. iii. p. 183) as M. 

 flaveola, Gould, an assumption just as gross ; for Mr. Gould 

 never so called it, while Pallas years before (Zoogr. Ross.- 

 As. i. p. 501) had a ]\I. flaveola which is certainly not the 

 present bird, any more than is his M. campestris — though 

 this last has been supposed by some to be our Yellow Wag- 

 tail. It accordingly follows that Bonaparte's Motacilla or 

 Budytes rail — that being the ancient way of spelling this 

 last word, is the name which should be used. 



