GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. 379 



eighth : the first, second, and third quill-feathers very nearly 

 equal in length ; but the first is rather the longest. 



The whole length of an adult female is six inches and one- 

 eighth. In the breeding-season the head, ear-coverts, and 

 nape of the neck, are slate-grey ; over the eye and ear-coverts 

 a white streak ; the back dull olive ; the edges of the wing- 

 coverts and tertials nearly white; the chin and throat white; 

 all the rest of the under surface of the body pale king''s- 

 yellow. 



In autumn the grey head of the female is mixed with 

 greenish brown, the white streak over the eye and the ear- 

 coverts remaining ; the chin white ; throat and breast buffy 

 white ; belly, and under tail-coverts, primrose-yellow. 



The young male in his first autumn plumage resembles 

 the adult female in the breeding-season, except that the 

 grey of the head is more mixed with brown, and the yellow 

 of the upper part of the breast is clouded with brown and 

 buffy orange. In the following spring the grey feathers 

 of the head still exhibit a slight mixture of olive-green, and 

 the chin is yellow, which in the more adult male is white. 



The young female in spring has the head and ear-coverts 

 greyish brown ; the chin and throat buffy white ; the upper 

 part of the breast mottled with brown ; the lower part of the 

 breast, and the other under parts, primrose yellow, enriched 

 with a mixture of king's yellow. 



This bird may be distinguished from our common summer 

 Yellow Wagtail, M. Rayi., next to be described, by the 

 white elongated line over the eyes and ear-coverts, which 

 appear to be permanent at all seasons, and by the grey head, 

 which is more or less conspicuous, also, at all seasons, but 

 particularly in summer. In Ray*'s Wagtail, the line over the 

 eye and the ear coverts is yellow ; and the head, I believe 

 invariably, of the same colour as the back of the bird. The 

 females of the two species most resemble each other. 



