228 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



5. Food. The food includes insects and their larvae, and "the small thin- 

 shelled molluscs found among water-meadows" (Saunders, Manual of British 

 Birds, 1899, p. 130). The young are fed by both parents, chiefly on caterpillars 

 and winged insects. [A. L. T.] 



6. Song Period. Whether it sings during the whole period of its annual 

 stay with us is not recorded. [F. B. K.] 



BLUEHEADED-WAGTAIL [Motacilla flava flava, Linnseus. French, 

 bergeronette printaniere ; German, Schafstelze], 



1. Description. Distinguished from the yellow- or Ray's wagtail by the 

 bluish slate crown, white superciliary stripe, and more or less distinct white stripe 

 through the ear-coverts, which are of an ash-grey. (PL 27.) The rest of the upper 

 parts yellowish olive-green, brighter in the rump. Lesser wing-coverts like the 

 back ; median and greater dark brown, with broad pale yellowish white tips, form- 

 ing two bands across the wing. Tail as in M , f. rayi. Under surface bright yellow ; 

 dusky spots on the throat show vestiges of a gorget. Length 6'30 in. [160 mm.]. 

 After the autumn moult the male has the upper parts tinged with brown, the super- 

 ciliary stripe yellowish, and the under parts pale. The female resembles the male 

 in autumn, having a brown tinge over the upper parts, and more white on the 

 throat, and paler yellow breast and abdomen : she is rather smaller than the male. 

 She can be distinguished from the female M . f. rayi, by the slightly bluer tint of the 

 crown, and the white superciliary stripe and chin. The young of the blueheaded- 

 may be distinguished from that of the yellow- or Rays-wagtail by the white 

 throat, yellowish white or buffish white superciliary stripe ; the back is of a more 

 greenish brown colour, and the green on the rump more pronounced, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. This race is found in the summer over the lowlands of 

 Continental Europe, except in the north, where it is replaced by the Arctic form, 

 and in the basins of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, where other races occur. 

 A few pah's breed annually along our south-eastern coasts, and it has also 

 nested hi Durham (Hancock, Cat. Birds of Northumberland and Durham, p. 60). 

 [p. c. R. j.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor to the localities where it breeds, and a 

 rare passing visitor, chiefly in late April and in August, to other parts of England 

 and Wales, and to the east of Scotland. There appears to be no certain record 

 from Ireland. [A. L. T.] 



