206 MOTACILLA 



grazing, marshy localities, and the vicinity of water. It is as a 

 rule not shy, and moves about with the greatest ease and grace, 

 catching insects on the wing as they rise from the grass with 

 great adroitness. It feeds on insects of various kinds : gnats, 

 small grasshoppers, caterpillars, &c. Its call-note is a clear 

 piping note, often uttered, and in the spring the male utters a 

 peculiar love-call resembling the syllables zeer zeer. The nest, 

 which is placed on the ground, amongst the grass, in a hole, or 

 in a bank, is constructed of grass-bents, fine roots, and moss, 

 lined with finer bents, horsehair, or wool, occasionally also with 

 a few feathers, and the eggs, which are usually deposited in 

 June, in number from 4 to 6, are dirty white marbled and 

 clouded with clay-brown or greyish or yellowish buff, and 

 measure about 077 by 0*61. The amount of white on the 

 cheeks varies considerably in individuals, and a variety having 

 the cheeks white with only a broad slate-grey band passing 

 through the eye has been separated specifically under the name 

 of Motacilla leema Sykes (cf. Sharpe torn. cit. p. 521, -pi. vi, fig. 6), 

 but it appears to me to be undeserving of even sub-specific 

 rank. 



306. GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. 

 MOTACILLA VIRIDIS. 



Motacilla viridis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 962 (1788) ; Newton, i. p. 560, 

 footnote ; Dresser, iii. 'p. 269, -pi. 129, fig. 3 ; M. cinereocapilla, 

 Savi. Nuov. Giorn. delle Lett, p. 190 (1831); Naum. xiii. pt. 2, 

 p. 128, Taf. 373 ; Gould. B. of Gt. Brit. iii. pi. v ; M. borealis, 

 Sundev. Ofv. K. Vet. Akacl. Forh, 1840, p. 53 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Br. Mus. x. p. 522, pi. vii ; Saunders, p. 128 ; Lilford, iii. p. 112, 

 pi. 57. 



Bergeronnette a tete cendrfo, French; G-raukopfige gelbe 

 Bachstelze, Germ. ; Strisciaiola capo-scuro, Ital. ; Grraahovedet 

 Vipstjert, Dan. ; Svarthufvad Gularla, Swed. 



$ ad. (N. Sweden). Differs from M. flava in having the lores, ear- 

 coverts and region round the eye black, the head, and nape occasionally, 

 blackish grev, and in some individuals there is a trace of a narrow white 

 supercilium. 



Hob. Northern Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia, ranging 

 further north than M. flava, wintering in Africa, India, Burma, 

 and the Malay Peninsula. Is said to have occurred twice in 

 Great Britain. 



