306 BIRDS FROM YEZO, JAPAN—STEJNEGER. 
species in all plumages, for Mr. Henson, who has correctly named nearly 
all the other species of his large collection, has sent me the entire lot of 
White Wagtails without an attempt to identify them, simply labeling 
them “ Motacilla—?” It may, therefore, not be out of place to give a 
brief tabular synopsis of the chief differences by which the various 
plumages are most easily distinguished. 
Plumage. | Motacilla lugens. Motacilla grandis. 
| 
Young in first plumage(June,| Upper surface ‘smoke gray’ | Upper surface, ear-coverts, and en- 
July, August; plumage (Ridgw., Nomencl. Col., pl. ii, n. tire fore-neck, uniform dark 
easily recognized by the | 12); ear-coverts and entire fore- “drab-gray”’ (Ridgw., Nomen- 
loose and open texture of neck white faintly washed with el. Col., pl. ii, n. 13); greater 
the contour feathers). | “eream color,” each feather nar- upper wing-coverts white to the 
| rowly edged at tip with dusky, base; middle coverts likewise 
| more broadly on lower jugulum, entirely white. 
forming an indistinct dusky col- 
lar across the latter; greater up- 
per wing-coverts dark brownish 
gray broadly margined with 
white; middle coverts dusky at | 
base, grayish white at tip with | 
| adusky shaft streak. 
Young after the first molt . Upper sirface smoke-gray more | Upper surface, sides of head, in- 
(which usually is finished or less strongly washed with cluding ear-coverts, sides otf 
before the middle of Octo- straw-yellow, the males usually | neck throat,and jugulum, dead 
ber; texture of contour | more or less black on hind | black; feathers on upper surface 
feathers firm; remigesand | crown; supraloral region, super- | more or less broadly margined 
rectrices not molting). | cilia, ear-coverts, malar region, | at tip with grayish; forehead, 
sides of neck, chin, and throat superciliary streak, and chin 
white tinged with straw-yel- pure white; wings as above. 
low; upper jugulum similar, but 
feathers subapically margined | 
with blackish, lower jugulum 
with a black, semilunar collar, 
each feather apically margined 
with whitish; through the eyes 
a dusky line; wings as above. 
Adult bird (i. ¢., birds ready | Cheeks (malar region, suborbital | Cheeks and sides of neck black. 
for propagation) after the | region, auriculars) and sides of | ‘Tarsus longer, 25"™ to 27m, 
Jirst spring (nomatter what | neck white. ‘Tarsus shorter, 
the coloration of the wing), | 23" to 25mm, 
summer, and winter. 
Notwithstanding the great superficial similarity in the two species, to 
the close observer they are very different indeed. Their general size 
is about the same, but the proportions differ materially, J/. grandis 
having alonger and at the base comparatvely narrower bill and con- 
siderably longer tarsus than M. lugens. The changes of plumages, 
moreover, are radically dissimilar, in fact so much so, that this case 
ought to be a warning to ornithologists not to be too hasty mm conclud- 
ing that, while he knows the change of plumages is one form to be of 
a certain nature, that of the nearest allied species is essentially alike. 
Capt. Blakiston, I think, was the first ornithologist to announce (Chry- 
santh., Jan. 1883, p. 31), the interesting observation that in MW. grandis 
the young birds during the first autumn pass at once into the black 
plumage, while the young M. lugens are gray during the first winter, 
and that subsequently the former remains black during all seasons, 
while the latter is black in summer only and gray in winter. 
It is quite evident from Capt. Blakiston’s manuscript notes, as well 
as from the labels attached to the specimens in his collection, that he 
considered the differences in the wing pattern found in the various in- 
