ray's wagtail. 383 



the irides hazel ; the top of tlie head, the lore, ear-coverts, 

 nape of the neck, scapulars, and back, very pale olive, rather 

 darkest on the back ; over the eye and ear-coverts a streak 

 of brilliant gamboge yellow ; wing-coverts and quill-feathers 

 dusky brown, the former tipped, the tertials edged and 

 tipped, with yellowish white ; upper tail-coverts olive ; the two 

 outer tail-feathers on each side white, with a streak of black 

 on the inner web, all the others brownish black ; the chin, 

 throat, breast, and all the under surface of the body a bright, 

 rich gamboge yellow ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 



The whole length of the bird six inches and a half. From 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches and one 

 eighth : the first three quill-feathers very nearly equal in 

 length, but the first rather the longest. 



The plumage of the female at the same season of the year 

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

 brown, and the under surface of the body of a less brilliant yel- 

 low. Young birds of the year, and the parent birds after the 

 moult which immediately succeeds the breeding-season, re- 

 semble each other considerably ; the olivaceous band observed 

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

 probably remains till the first spring change, when the birds 

 are nearly twelve months old. 



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 ef- 

 fected in the colour of the old feathers, and not a change of 

 the feathers themselves. 



