MOTACILLID.33 MOTACILLA 261 



Iris brown ; bill, tarsi and feet black. 



Length 6-35 ; wing 3-10; tail 2-75 ; tarsus 0-90; culmen 0-52. 



Adult female. Like the male but less bright, the forehead like 

 the crown. 



Adult in winter. Crown olive-yellow uniform with the back; 

 ear-coverts entirely yellow. 



Distribution. Breeds in the British Isles and in South-eastern 

 Eussia and Turkestan. Migrates in winter to West and South 

 Africa, ranging as far south on the west coast as Gaboon, on the 

 east as Mozambique, the Transvaal and Natal. 



Habits. Ray's Wagtail is only found in South Africa during 

 the season of the European winter and it can only be looked upon 

 as a somewhat rare visitor at this period, as the majority of this 

 species do not wander as far south. The individual birds that 

 migrate to and from the Transvaal and Natal probably breed in 

 South-eastern Eussia or in Turkestan, as the more western 

 birds that reach England are known to do so by migrating across 

 the Straits of Gibraltar and so through Spain and France. This 

 Wagtail haunts from choice flat or undulating pasture or corn-land, 

 and is partial to swampy grass-lands near meres and rivers. It 

 is fond of running after cattle for the sake of the flies and other 

 insects which it finds infesting these animals. It flies in undulating 

 curves. Its note is the usual "chirrup" of the Wagtails. In 

 addition to various insects it feeds on small water-molluscs. 



Towards the end of April or beginning of May, in England, it 

 commences to build its nest in a depression of the ground in a 

 cornfield or meadow. It is a cup-shaped structure, built of dry 

 grass and moss, lined with fine rootlets, hair and down. From 

 four to six greyish-white eggs, mottled with brown and often with 

 a few black hair-streaks towards the large end, are laid about the 

 first week in May. They measure 0'78 x 0*56. 



151. Motacilla flava. Blue-headed Wagtail. 



Motacilla flava, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 331 (1760) ; Dresser, B. Europe, 

 iii, p. 261, pi. 129, figs, 1 and 2 (1875) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x, p. 516, 

 pi. 6, figs. 3-5 (1885) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 11 (1896). 

 Budytes flava, Cuvier, Eegne Anim. p. 371 (1817) ; Gurney in 

 Andersson's B. Damara Land, p. 112 (1872) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's 

 B. S. Afr. pp. 550, 853 (1884). 



Description. Adult male in summer. Above, olive-yellow, 

 brighter on the rump ; upper tail-coverts dusky edged with olive- 



