BLUE-HEADED WAGTAIL. 559 



distinctive English name applied to it) is now believed to be 

 of almost annual occurrence and even to have bred in this 

 country, and our Yellow Wagtail has been observed in many 

 parts of Western Europe, it cannot be gainsaid that each 

 has in the main a separate if not a very well-defined range. 

 Moreover, so far as the Editor knows, no examples suffi- 

 ciently intermediate between the two birds to give rise to 

 any doubt in referring them to either have been found, and 

 accordingly the recognition of each seems to be as much re- 

 quired as that of the two black-and-white Wagtails already 

 described. But it is to be observed that besides a very dis- 

 tinct species, the M. citreola of Pallas, Europe is inhabited 

 by at least four forms of Yellow Wagtail, which some 

 authors regard as so many good species, while other writers 

 consider them subspecies, races or local varieties. The first 

 of these, the common Yellow Wagtail of this country, M. 

 raii, will immediately be treated of at length. The second 

 is the subject of the present article, the Blue-headed Wag- 

 tail undoubtedly the M. flava of Linnaeus* and the M. 

 neglecta of Mr. Gould, which, except M. raii, has the 

 most westerly range, and the cock in breeding-plumage has 

 a bluish-grey crown and ear-coverts, with white eyebrows. 

 The third is the M. cinereicapilla, long ago described by 

 Savi as having a dark grey crown, black ear-coverts and 

 no white superciliary streak. The fourth is that which 

 is commonly called M. melanocephalaj with or without a 

 superciliary streak of yellow or white, but having an intensely 

 black head. But between these last three, examples are said 

 to be found so intermediate that it is almost impossible to 

 determine to which they belong,! and the difference between 



* In his full description of the adult male of this bird (Faun. Svec. Ed. 2, 

 p. 92) Linnaeus expressly mentions its characteristic " lineola supra oculos alba." 



f This name was first given to a Wagtail by Lichtenstein, but it is perhaps 

 questionable whether it should be allowed to stand, since there is a very different 

 bird, one of the Warblers, which was long before called M. melanocephala by 

 J. F. Gmelin ; and there are some authorities who consider the true M. melano- 

 cephala of Lichtenstein even to be distinct from the European bird usually so 

 termed, naming this last M. nigricapilla. 



J Such an example shot some years ago near Penzance, and now in Mr. Rodd's 



