WAGTAILS. 189 



Europe, chiefly to the temperate parts of it; 

 and Temminck states, that in some parts of France 

 it only appears during winter, performing a par- 

 tial migration in the breeding time. In the 

 British Islands it is generally distributed. 



Top of the head and nape gray, streaked longi- 

 tudinally with brown ; the auriculars brown, 

 having the shafts of the feathers pale ; back, wing 

 coverts and rump yellowish brown ; centre of the 

 feathers, except on the rump, liver brown, which 

 form in their disposal longitudinal streaks of that 

 dark colour ; feathers, composing the wings, 

 liver brown ; the outer webs nearly yellowish 

 brown, margined with yellowish gray ; the middle 

 wing coverts tipped with white ; the tail deep 

 yellowish brown ; the throat, breast, sides of the 

 neck bluish grey ; belly grayish white ; flanks 

 and under tail coverts pale yellowish brown, hav- 

 ing the centre of the feathers darker, and which, 

 from their loose texture there, makes the whole 

 appear of a brownish tint. Plumage of the female 

 is nearly similar. 



We now enter another of Mr Swainson's sub- 

 divisions, the Motacillince or Wagtails. The 

 passage from the Titmice will be led by means of 

 Accentor, and by the American genus Seiurus, 

 more particularly by S. aquaticus ; thence to 

 Budytes of Cuvier to the true wagtails and 

 Anthi or Pipits ; but the British genera being 

 extremely limited, many other foreign types 

 intervene to fill up the blanks in the complete 





