GREY WAGTAIL. 557 



The colours of the female are at all seasons paler than 

 those of the male ; and the young bird of the year, like the 

 adult female in winter, wants the buff breast of the male at 

 that season. 



The genus Motacilla, which, as originally founded by 

 Linnaeus, contained nearly all the "Soft-billed" birds of early 

 English ornithologists, was restricted by various authors in 

 succession until none but the Wagtails remained in it. In 

 1817, Cuvier further divided it, establishing a genus Bu- 

 dytes (of which the bird next to be described is the type) for 

 the Wagtails having a long hind claw, and also distinguished 

 by the prevalence of yellow in their plumage, while he left 

 only the black-and-white Wagtails in the genus Motacilla. 

 This, in the opinion of some systematists, did not sufficiently 

 provide for the present species, which is in some respects 

 intermediate between the two groups, and accordingly Kaup, 

 in 1829, proposed generic distinction for it under the name 

 of Calobates a step which has been followed by many 

 authors. British writers have commonly applied the specific 

 name of boarula to the Grey Wagtail, but they have done so 

 erroneously. The M. boarula of Scopoli, who first of bino- 

 mial nomenclaturists used that name, is undoubtedly the 

 M. flava of Linnaeus, and hence it is necessary to adopt for 

 the Grey Wagtail Bechstein's name of M. sulphurea. The 

 M. flava of Scopoli is the present bird, and the M. boarula 

 of Linnaeus is also the young of his M. flava. 



The vignette represents on the left the foot and breast- 

 bone of the Pied Wagtail, and on the right the foot of our 

 common Yellow Wagtail, belonging to the section of the 

 genus which possesses an elongated hind claw. 



