868 MOTACILLIDE, 



edge on the inner web ; chin, throat, and neck in front, and 

 on the sides, black, ^v]lich, uniting with the same colour on 

 the anterior part of the wings and scapulars, surrounds the 

 white on the side of the neck ; breast, belly, and under tail- 

 coverts, white ; sides of the body and flanks slate-grey ; legs, 

 toes, and claws, black ; the hind claw rather short. 



The whole length of a male bird seven inches and a half. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches 

 and three eighths ; the first three primaries very nearly equal 

 in length, but the first of the three rather the longest in the 

 wing. 



The adult female is half an inch shorter in the whole 

 length than the male ; and only differs from him, at this 

 season, in having the back lead-grey, mottled with darker 

 feathers, almost as black as those on the back of the male at 

 this season. 



In the adult male and female in winter plumage, the black 

 colour of the head and nape of the neck does not extend to 

 the back, which is then nearly uniform ash-grey ; chin and 

 throat white ; the black colour on the front of the neck only 

 appearing in the form of a gorget or crescent, the horns of 

 which arc directed upwards to the back part of the ear- 

 coverts. The darker colour of the plumage of the breeding- 

 season is obtained in the spring by an alteration taking place 

 in the colour of the feathers, not by losing the old feathers 

 and gaining new ones : the annual moult takes place in 

 autumn. 



Young birds of the year resemble the parent birds in their 

 winter plumage, except that the head is not black, but ash- 

 grey, like the back ; the cheeks and car-coverts are tinged 

 with yellow, and the upper part of the breast mottled with 

 greyish black. 



The White Wagtail of the Continent in its summer 

 plumage has the top of the head and the nape of the neck 



