MOTACILLIN.E. 235 



Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 410 ; Murray's Verte- 

 brate Zoology of Sind, p. 164 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central 

 India; Ibis, 1885; p. 126. 



THE PIED WAGTAIL. 



Length, 8'5 to 9 ; expanse, 12 ; wing, 375 to 4; tail, 4; tarsus, 

 1 ; bill at front, 0'6 ; bill from gape, 072. 



Bill blackish ; irides dark-brown ; legs blackish. 



Upper plumage, with the chin, throat, and breast black, with 

 a broad white supercilium and a large white wing-spot, formed 

 by the median and greater-coverts, and the edges of some of the 

 primaries ; the greater part of the two outermost tail-feathers 

 white, also the edges of the upper tail-coverts ; beneath, from 

 the breast, white. 



The female has the black less pure. In winter the chin, upper 

 part of the throat, and some feathers just below the eye, are 

 white. 



The Pied "Wagtail is very generally distributed throughout 

 the Presidency ; it is a permanent resident, breeding nearly the 

 whole year through. They have several broods during the season ; 

 one pair that frequented a small tank adjoining my compound 

 at Poona had a nest with two young ones and an addled egg on 

 the 3rd March. On the 23rd April I took three incubated eggs 

 from the same nest ; they had another nest, built about a yard 

 away from the first one, which contained two eggs on the 9th 

 May. In July, I noticed them feeding a pair of young birds, and 

 towards the end of August they were making preparations for 

 another brood. So that this pair had at least five clutches of 

 eggs in one season. They were the only Wagtails on the tank, 

 and were very pugnacious, and would allow no other bird to 

 remain on the tank ; their own young ones, as soon as they 

 were able to forage for themselves, were even driven away. 



The nest which is a mere pad, composed of grass fibres, &c., is 

 always near water, and is built upon something solid, such as the 

 ledge of a rock, a niche in a stone bridge, a hole in a bank, or 

 some such similar place. 



The eggs, three or four in number, vary much both in size and 

 shape, but are always more or less pointed at one end. The 

 general color is greenish or earthy-white, spotted, speckled, 

 streaked, clouded or smudged with olive, purplish, or earthy- 

 brown. 



They average 0*9 inches in length by about 0'65 in breadth. 



Motacilla leucopsis, Gould. 



590. Motacilla luzoniensis, Scop. Jerdon's Birds of India, 



Vol. II, p. 218. 



THE WHITE-FACED WAGTAIL. 



Length, 7'9 ; extent, 1T25 ; wing, 3'6 ; tail, 375 ; tarsus, 

 0'6 ; bill at front, 0'6. 



