202 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Average of 100 eggs, 19 X 14.1 mm. Breeding-season. — Exception- 

 ally eggs laid end April, generally latter part May or early June. 

 One brood generally but apparently a few pairs rear two, as fresh 

 eggs have been found in July. Incubation. — Chiefly at any rate 

 by hen ; period about fortnight, but not exactly known. 



Food. — Insects, especially diptera, and small molluscs. One killed 

 on coast contained sandhoppers. 



Distribution. — Great Britain. — Summer-resident. Arrives end 

 March, April, and early May ; departs Sept. Has occurred Oct. 

 and even so late as Nov. 27. Distributed throughout England and 

 Wales, but rarely breeds Devon, where, as Cornwall and west 

 Wales, chiefly loiown as passage-migrant. In Scotland chiefly in 

 Clyde area, elsewhere in south scarce and rarely as far as Inverness 

 and Aberdeen on east side, and not beyond Clyde area in west, 

 north of which a straggler. Said to have bred Orkneys. Occurred 

 N. Rona (O. Hebrides), Orkneys, Shetlands, and Fair Isle. Ireland. 

 — Very local, breeding on Loughs Neagh, Corrib, and Mask ; occurs 

 autumn Dublin coast and three times Wexford Lights. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Appears to breed in small numbers in 

 west Holland (Snouckaert van Schauburg, Avifauna Neerlandica, 

 p. 27, 1908), west France, and perhaps Portugal, also, it is said, on 

 Heligoland (Weigold, Orn. Monatsber., 1910, p. 158). Migrates 

 through west Europe to west Africa. 



MOTACILLA CINEREA 



83. Motacilla cinerea cinerea Tunst.* — THE GREY 



WAGTAIL. 



Motacilla cinerea Tunstall, Orn. Brit., p. 2 (1771 — New name for the 

 "Grey Water Wagtail" and " Hoche-queue ou Bergeronette jaune " 

 of the Zool. Brit, and Brisson). 



Motacilla hoarula Linnteus, Mantissa Plantarum, p. 527 (1771 — Sweden). 

 Motacilla grisea P. L. S. Miiller, Natiirsystem, Suppl., p. 175 (1776 — 

 Ex Edwards ! 3Iiiller says " America," but Edwards, who also figured 

 the adult male quite well, expressly says that the bird he described 

 was shot near London). 



* Mr. T. Iredale points out to us that the earliest reference to Motacilla 

 hoarula is Scopoli, Annus I, Hist. Nat., p. 154, 1769. It is clear, however, 

 that Scopoli described (p. 153) the " Grey Wagtail" as Motacilla flava, and 

 named the " Blue-headed Wagtail" Motacilla hoarula. He says that his 

 M. flava is not gregarious, non-migratory, and found along rivers, and that 

 it has a grey back and yellow rump. Of his M. hoarula he says only that 

 it is smaller than his flava, gregarious, and not aquatic, follows the herds 

 in the meadows, and has a different note ; his quotations refer with more 

 or less certainty to M. flava flava or some of its races. 



Under the circumstances, Linnseus's later name of 1771 (Scopoli is 1769) 

 cannot be accepted, and we must revert to the name cinerea of Tunstall. 



