MOT AC ILL A 203 



Bergeronnette jau ne, French; Alveloa amarella, Portug. ; Cutti- 

 rcttola, Ital. ; Graue Bachstehe, Germ. ; Groote gcle Kwikstaar- 

 Dutch ; Greta Vipstjcrt, Dan.; Grddrla, Swed. ; Gornaya-Trcso- 

 gnshka, Russ. 



<$ ad. (Scotland). Crown, nape, and upper parts dark ash tinged with 

 olivaceous ; rump and upper tail-coverts greenish yellow ; wings and tail 

 blackish with paler margins, the outer tail-feathers white ; supercilium 

 and a streak on the side of the throat white ; chin and throat black ; rest of 

 under parts canary-yellow ; flanks washed with grey ; bill blackish ; legs 

 fleshy brown ; iris brown. Culmen 0'6, wing 3'25, tail 3'9, tarsus 0'85 

 inch. The female is duller and paler in colour and has the throat greyish 

 white slightly marked with black. In the winter the throat is white in 

 both sexes, the under parts are paler, and the pale margins on the 

 secondaries are broader. 



Hob. Europe generally as far north as Great Britain and Den- 

 mark ; the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira, northern and central 

 Asia as far east as Japan, wintering in northern Africa, 

 India, Burma, and the Malayan Peninsular and islands. 



It frequents rocky burns and running water in hilly and 

 mountainous districts, and is seldom found on the plains or in 

 meadows, and is as a rule shyer than the other species of 

 Wagtail, especially when it finds itself followed. Its call-note 

 is a sharp zis-zit, uttered several times in succession, and in the 

 spring the male utters a softer note, which, however, cannot be 

 called a song. Like its allies it feeds on insects, chiefly aquatic, 

 and their larva?. The nest is almost always near water, usually 

 on the bank of a stream, and is constructed of grass-bents, 

 rootlets, and moss, lined with fine roots, wool, or hair, and the 

 eggs, which are usually deposited in April or May, 5 or 6 in 

 number, are dull white closely marbled or freckled with pale 

 yellowish brown, occasionally with a black streak or mark, and 

 measure about 071 by O55. 



Specimens from the Azores and Madeira are the most richly 

 coloured, but do not specifically vary from the ordinary European 

 form. 



303. YELLOW-HEADED WAGTAIL. 

 MOTACILLA CITREOLA. 



Motacilla citreola, Pall. Reis. iii. App. p. 696, No. 14 (1776) ; Naum. 

 xiii. p. 117, Taf. 377, figs. 2, 4 ; Gould, B. of E. pi. 144 ; Dresser, 

 iii. p. 245, pi. 127 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. p. 503 ; Gates, F. 

 Brit. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 298. 



$ ad. (Yenesei). Head, neck, and under parts rich canary-yellow ; 

 upper parts dark slate-grey ; a black collar on the hind neck ; wings and 



