446 MOTACILLID^l. 



tail-coverts olive ; the two outer tail -feathers on each side 

 white, with a streak of black on the inner web, all the 

 others brownish black; the chin, throat, breast, and all 

 the under surface of the body, a bright, rich gamboge yel- 

 low ; legs, toes, and claws, black. 



The whole length of the bird is six inches and a half. 

 From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches 

 and one-eighth : the first three quill -feathers very nearly 

 equal in length, but the first rather the longest. 



The plumage of the female at the same season of the 

 year is much less rich in colour, the back being tinged 

 with darker brown, and the under surface of the body of 

 a less brilliant yellow. Young birds of the year, and the 

 parent birds after the moult, which immediately succeeds 

 the breeding-season, resemble each other considerably ; the 

 olivaceous band observed in some across the breast, is, I 

 believe, a sign of youth, and probably remains till the first 

 spring change, when the birds are nearly twelve months 

 old. 



Having frequently examined specimens of our Wagtails 

 in the spring of the year, when they were assuming either 

 the change of colour, or the additional brilliancy of tint, 

 peculiar to the breeding-season, without finding any new 

 feathers in progress, I am induced to consider the vernal 

 change in these birds as so many instances of alteration 

 effected in the colour of the old feathers, and not a change 

 of the feathers themselves. 



