GREY WAGTAIL. 555 



tioned by Mr. Gould (Contr. Orn. 1849, p. 137), does the 

 species seem to have been more than an accidental settler. 



The Grey Wagtail does not visit Iceland, the Fseroes or 

 Norway. It has been observed in Heligoland, and a single 

 example is said by Prof. Nilsson to have been shot in the 

 extreme south of Sweden, 4th December, 1843. Its most 

 northern occurrence in Germany, near Kiel, was recorded by 

 F. Boie more than forty years ago, and in that country it is 

 chiefly confined to the mountainous districts which only exist 

 in the central and southern parts. It is however also said 

 to have occurred once in Posen. Thence it is found on the 

 Carpathians and so through to Turkey, where it is met with 

 at all seasons of the year, and the Editor has received from 

 Mr. Eobson its nest and eggs taken on the Asiatic side of the 

 Bosphorus. It visits Greece in autumn and passes the winter 

 in the Cyclades. It is also common at the same season 

 in Palestine. De Filippi records it from Delidian and near 

 Elburz, but its presence so far to the eastward is open to 

 doubt, because, according to some ornithologists, its place is 

 here taken by the Motacilla melanope of Pallas, a very nearly 

 allied form, but with a constantly shorter tail. Should the 

 two birds be deemed identical, then the range assigned to 

 the species must be enormously extended,* for it is found 

 not only on the Ingoda and at Jeniseisk, but also in Ladak, 

 South-eastern Siberia, Japan, China, Formosa, Hainan, Java 

 and Sumatra, besides breeding, according to Mr. Hume, in 

 Cashmere, and being a constant winter- visitor to various parts 

 of India. Leaving this point undecided, there seems to be 

 no doubt, however, as to the species which is a bird of double 

 passage through Arabia and Egypt being the same as our 

 own, and it goes as far south in eastern Africa as Abyssinia, 

 wintering in the central highlands of that country, but, 



* This is not the only result of such an identification. If the two birds are 

 not specifically distinct, the name M. melanope, conferred by Pallas in 1776 

 (Reise u. s. w. iii. p. 696) on the eastern form, takes precedence of Bechstein's 

 M. sulphured. The Editor has not been able to detect any other difference than 

 that noticed above between eastern and western specimens, and relies on the 

 opinion of Mr. Swinhoe (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, pp. 364, 365), backed by that 

 of Lord Walden, for not adhering to the old belief of their specific identity. 



