382 MOTACILLIDE. 



The call-note of this bird is more shrill than that of the 

 other Wagtails, and consists of two notes repeated in succes- 

 sion, the second of which, in the musical scale, is one whole 

 tone lower than the first. This species is numerous, and 

 generally diffused during summer from the southern coast of 

 England as far north as Durham and Northumberland ; 

 where, according to Mr. Selby, they collect in small flocks 

 after the breeding-season, and move southwards towards the 

 end of August. Montagu observed flocks of these birds in 

 Devonshire in the autumn of 1802, 8, 4, and 5, and every 

 succeeding year they Avere observed sooner or later in the 

 southern promontories of Devon. According to Dr. Edward 

 Moore, similar assemblages of these birds take place every 

 year at the present time ; and Mr. Blyth mentions having 

 " noticed a small flock of them, early one morning in Sep- 

 tember, upon the sands in the isle of Jersey, which had appa- 

 rently not long alighted from a journey across the Channel, 

 and had probably taken their departure from some part of the 

 West of England." 



The geographical range of this species, as far as at present 

 known, is very limited ; it appears to be a rare summer 

 visiter even to Ireland, according to Mr. Thompson ; and 

 M. Temminck states that he has certainly never seen it on 

 the continent of Europe in any locality between the Baltic 

 and the Mediterranean. 



M. Temminck, in the Supplement to his Manual, has 

 proposed the name o? Jlavcola for this species; but he was 

 not aware at that time of Mr. Gould's intention to name this 

 bird after Ray ; and I do not anticipate any objection to 

 identify this bird, which is almost exclusively British, with 

 the name of the British naturalist who first described it. 



I am indebted to my friend Mr. Henry Doubleday of 

 Epping, for the finest specimen of this bird I ever saw, an 

 adult male in brilliant sununcr plumage. The beak is black ; 



