272 MOTACILLA ALBA. 



I saw, and its mummied form is now in the British Museum, 

 which is the only proper place in England for interesting 

 specimens of birds ; and if others would follow my example by 

 placing their collections in our National Museum it would be 

 a great boon to science, and do away with the useless slaughter 

 of the innocents. 



Motacilla alba. 



Motacilla alba, Linn. ; Hartl. J. f. 0. 1861, p. 161 Gasamansc ; Sclat. and 

 Hartl. P. Z. S. 1881, p. 167 Socotra ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x. p. 464 

 (1885) Gambia, Socotra, Abyssinia ; Yerbury, Ibis, 1886, p. 17 

 Aden; Hartert, J. f. 0. 1886, p. 583 Niger ; Kendall, Ibis, 1892, 

 p. 216 Gambia; Barnes, Ibis, 1893, p. 78 Aden; Shelley, B. Afr. I. 

 No. 144 (1896) ; Hawker, Ibis, 1899, p. 66 Somali ; Jackson, t. c. 

 p. 625 Mumias and Ravine ; Hartert, in Ansorge's " Under Afr. 

 Sun," p. 348 (1899) Unyoro ; Grant, Ibis, 1900, p. 139 Abyssinia. 



Motacilla gularis, Swains.; Bouvier, Cat. Ois. Marche, &c, p. 16 (1875) 

 Dakar. 



Adult (winter plumage). Head white, with the hinder half of the 

 crown and the nape jet black ; back of neck, back and lesser wing-coverts 

 grey, shading into dusky black on the upper tail-coverts, remainder of the 

 wings black with broad white ends to the median coverts and white edges 

 to the greater coverts and secondaries, and very narrow ashy white edges to 

 the primaries ; under wing-coverts and inner margins to the quills white ; 

 tail with the four centre pairs of feathers entirely black, the outer two pairs 

 white with oblique broad black edges to their inner webs and a similar 

 shaped black mark on the basal portion of the outer web of the penultimate 

 feather ; under parts white, shading into ashy grey on the sides of the body, 

 and with a broad black crop-band. Total length 7'4 inches, culmen 0-55, 

 wing 3-5, tail 3'6, tarsus 0'9. $, 3. 12. 97, Somali (Hawker). 



The White Wagtail breeds in Europe and Asia and 

 migrates into Africa, from October to May, to as far south as 

 the Equator. 



In the British Museum there are four specimens from 

 Senegambia, and Dr. P. Kendall, who met with it near 

 Bathurst, writes : " During the autumn months there were a 



