The Blue-Headed Wagtail. 187 



southern, south-western, and eastern counties during the breeding-season, nests 

 having been recorded from Kent and Durham ; it has occurred a few times in 

 Scotland and Ireland, and has been seen in Shetland in the Autumn. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the forehead, crown, and nape bluish- 

 grey ; back yellowish-olive, browner on the upper tail coverts ; wing-coverts dark 

 brown, tipped with yellowish- white ; flights dark-brown ; secondaries with yellowish- 

 white margins ; tail feathers, excepting the two outer pairs, blackish-brown ; the 

 outer ones white, their inner webs edged with black ; lores and ear-coverts deep 

 slate-grey ; a white superciliary' streak, and a second white streak below the lores ; 

 chin white ; remainder of under surface bright canary-yellow ; bill and feet black ; 

 iris hazel. The female is duller in colouring, and the head is more olivaceous. 

 Young birds have the breast spotted with brown, and otherwise closel}' resemble 

 the female. The white eye-stripe is always present at all ages in both sexes. 



I met with this species in life about the end of Maj', or beginning of June, 

 1883, when I saw it in company with the Yellow Wagtail in an old deserted 

 brickfield at IMurston, near Sittingbourne ; it was running along the margins of 

 the reedy pools (produced by the removal of the brick-earth and the subsequent 

 winter rains), flying up from time to time with a shrill cry which resembled that 

 of its Yellow congener, a sort of scizznr to my ear, though it has usually been 

 rendered chit-up by writers on British Birds. 



Two years later Mr. William Drake, of Kemsley, near Sheppe3% sent me a 

 nest found by one of his boys among the long wiry grass on the saltings near 

 the creek, informing me that it was the nest of a Yellow Wagtail, as the boy had 

 seen the birds, which he described as having a "black head with white ring," 

 evidently referring to the superciliar}^ and subloral white streaks, the head probably 

 appearing, at a short distance, to be blackish in contrast with the yellowish colouring 

 of the back : the eggs (six in number) are for the most part almost indistinguish- 

 able from those of the common Yellow Wagtail, but one or two are distinctlj' 

 mottled, and correspond exactly with authentic eggs of the Blue-headed species in 

 my possession. 



In his "Birds of Norfolk" Stevenson mentions the occurrence of this species 

 at Sherringham, Yarmouth, and the Heigham river : he also records the fact of its 

 having been shot on more than one occasion at Lowestoft (Suffolk) and at Stoke 

 Nayland. Although onlj' a visitor to our islands on migration, this species is 

 probably a tolerably regular one ; moreover, the fact that it undoubtedl}' breeds 

 with us, fully entitles it to be regarded as a British species. Herr Gatke observes : 

 " As one might expect, it also visits Heligoland in very large numbers during 

 both migration periods — though naturally its numbers are incomparably larger in 



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