288 MOTACILLA CINEREICAPILLA. 



in the specific value of their characters, and some of the 

 synonyms may prove to be referred to the wrong forms. I 

 have therefore treated M. borealis and M. cinereicapilla as 

 subspecies of ill. flava. 



Layard procured a specimen which lighted on his vessel 

 while ninety miles off the coast of Senegambia, and according 

 to Dr. Kendall these "Wagtails are common at the Gambia 

 throughout the winter months. When I stopped at Sierra 

 Leone, on my way to the Gold Coast, Yellow Wagtails were 

 feeding: on the mud-banks in Free Town harbour. In Liberia 

 specimens have been collected by Demery along the Sulymah 

 river, and Mr. Biittikofer found them common on the farms, 

 sometimes close to the native villages, and often in the same 

 localities as M. vidua. 



Gordon, who was the first to record the species from the 

 Gold Coast, writes : " In considerable numbers during the dry 

 season, disappearing on the setting in of the rains and return- 

 ing early in November." I and Mr. T. B. Buckley found them 

 abundant on this coast in February and March, about a month 

 before the rainy season. In Togoland it has been met with 

 by Mr. Baumann. In the Niger district Forbes collected 

 three specimens at Shongo in December, Mr. Hartert procured 

 a specimen at Loko in May, and remarked it there only on two 

 occasions, but found it more abundant in the highlands to the 

 north, where they retained their bright plumage throughout 

 the winter. 



Marche and De Compiegne collected specimens in Gaboon, 

 and Dr. Reickenow records it as having been procured by 

 Falkenstein on the Loango coast, and by Bohndorff at Stanley 

 Falls on the Congo. 



From the West African subregion I find no record of 

 M. borealis; but M. cinereicajnUa is represented in the British 

 Museum by a specimen labelled " Senegal (Laglaize)." Dr. 



