550 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFTICA. 
brown ; under wing-coverts white with dusky bases, the edge of the 
wing mottled with dark brown; quills below dusky brown, with a 
large patch of white near the base of the inner web. 
Total length, 7°2 inches; culmen, 0°65; wing, 3:25; tail, 3:4; 
tarsus, 0°95. 
Adult female.—Similar to the male, but a little duller in colour, 
and having the collar on the fore-neck not quite so broadly indicated. 
Total length, 6°8 inches; culmen, 0°65; wing, 3:2; tail, 3°35; 
tarsus, 0°95. 
534, Bupyrss riava (L.). Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail. 
In our first edition we noticed (p. 119) a yellow Wagtail which 
had been sent us from Swellendam by Mr. J. Reitz, the skin 
of which was unfortunately lost. In the spring of 1868, however, 
Mr. F. Dumbleton of Wedgewood, near Durban, about fifteen miles 
from Cape Town, shot another specimen, which he was kind enough 
to send to us. He had previously told us that he had seen a 
specimen about the same farm many years before, and as he was a 
close observer of birds we feel sure that his observations may be 
trusted, and we may conclude from the fact that only two specimens 
were met with by him in sixteen years, that this Yellow Wagtail is 
a very rare and accidental visitor to this part of Southern Africa. 
Mr. T. C. Rickard mentions the fact of a specimen having been 
killed once near East London. In the Transvaal the species has 
been noticed by Mr. Ayres, who writes:—‘ This Wagtail appears 
here in our spring in considerable numbers, and leaves again about 
the latter end of April; they do not appear to rest here, neither are 
they in good plumage; the best plumaged birds are to be got just 
as they are leaving. During their stay here they are common on 
our market-square early every morning, where they find abundant 
food amongst the short grass, and the cow-dung, which attracts 
many insects, on which they are often to be seen feeding in 
company with Motacilla capensis.” Mr. Andersson gives the 
following note :—‘I had been fifteen years in Damara Land before 
I became aware of the existence of this Wagtail, which I first 
observed at Otjimbinque in 1865, when I obtained a few specimens, 
nearly all of which were immature. It is a migratory bird, and 
appears only in or about the rainy season.” 
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