2C)G j\Ir. AY. L. Sclater on Birds collected 



seeu where the j^rass is more or less thick and in the low 

 country where the bush is more open. lu general habits it 

 resembles A. pyrrhonotus and A. nicholsoni. 



The soft parts are : — Irides hazel ; bill, upper mandible 

 horn-brown, lower yellowish horn-coloured ; legs and toes 

 palish brown, in some specimens pale amber-coloured.] 



147. MoTACILLA VIDUA. 



N. Illovo, Nov. (1) ; Tv. Klein Letaba, July, Sept. (3) ; 

 P. Tete, Sept. (2). 



I quite agree with Mr. Grant's remarks about the winter 

 plumage of this Wagtail. These birds have the black flanks 

 characteristic of M. raillanll { = i\I. nigricotis Shelley). 



[In the small series of this Wagtail collected there are 

 birds taken in the w^inter and summer seasons with entirely 

 black heads and l)acks. This caused me to carefully overhaul 

 the very fine series in the British Museum, and I find that 

 there is no evidence to shew that this species assumes a winter 

 plumage with an ashy-brown l)ack. But there is every 

 evidence to shew that the fully adult birds moult once a 

 year, and that this takes place in the autumn, the black 

 upper parts being therefore retained throughout both the 

 winter and summer seasons. Also that young birds moult 

 from the first plumage into an ashy-brown-back stage ; the 

 adult feathering apparently being assumed in the second 

 year. 



This Wagtail was only observed on the Tugela River at 

 ]5ond's Drift, Natal, the low country of the North-Eastern 

 Transvaal, and in the Tete district of the Portuguese country. 

 It is partial to the land-lo(.'ked mouths of rivers near the 

 coast and the broad sandy rivers inland, like the Klein 

 Letaba, the Mazoe and the Zambesi. Usually observed in 

 pairs, sometimes in threes, in appearance and habits it 

 greatly resembles the European Pied Wagtail (M. luyubris). 

 The call is the Wagtail " Chiswick,'' and the flight is low, 

 undulating, and graceful. 



The soft parts are: — Irides dark brown: bill, legs and 

 toes black.] 



