456 NOTES. 



Sometime ago Mr. Brooks, it may be remembered;, separated 

 the Black-backed Black and White Wagtail from Cashmere, as M\ 

 cashmerensis , remarking that it " is quite distinct from M. luzoni- 

 ensis, Scopoli, with which I compared it. The latter is, as noted 

 by Dr. Jerdon, identical with M. Hodgsoni, Bly th, vel M. alboides, 

 Hodg. My new bird is colored very like M. lug ens, Temm. and 

 Schleg., except that the chin and throat are black. The black ex- 

 tends down the breast for 2j inches from base of lower mandible ; 

 white portion of face as in M. personata of Gould and M. lug ens ; 

 remainder of head and whole of back deep black ; all the wing- 

 coverts, except a few at the upper portion of the bend of the wing 

 pure white ', all the quills edged with white, the tertials very 

 broadly so ; so that when the wing is closed, it looks almost entirely 

 white. I need not notice that the tail is the same as that of all 

 other Black and White Wagtails. Total length, 7*6; wing, 3*55 ; 

 tail, 4 inches ; bill, at front, *5 ; tarsus, '97. My bird has a 

 grey back in winter, and some of those shot in May were 

 only partly changed. If Mr. Gould's specimens of M. 'personata 

 were not midsummer ones, my bird may be the summer plumage 

 of that species." 



Now Mr. Brooks writes: — :l The Cashmere Black-backed 

 Wagtail, which I described as M. cashmerensis, is, I find, only the full 

 breeding plumage of M. personata, Gould. Gould described from 

 specimens obtained in the plains of India, and he did not know that 

 his species later on obtained a black back. The change from a 

 pure grey back in March and April to a pure black one late in 

 May and early in June is a curious one, for it appears to be a 

 change in the color of the feather without any further moult. 

 I obtained many specimens and ODly the minority had pure 

 black backs ; some had the rump and lower back grey still late in 

 May, others retained a certain amount of black on the lower 

 back as late even as June. Some of the females had dusky grey 

 backs, while the males were more or less black. I saw several 

 pairs, of which one bird was grey and the other black. But 

 the shape of the white patch in which the eye is set is peculiar 

 in this species, and this alone separates it from any other Wag- 

 tail without regard to the color of the back. 



"I do not now think that M. Hodgsoni, Gray, is a synonym 

 of M. luzaniensis. On a drawing of M. luzoniensis by Hodgson, 

 which he terms M. alboides, there is written in pencil M. Hodgsoni, 

 This is, I think, only a suggestion, a query by Hodgson. 



" As far as I can understand, the north-eastern black-backed 

 species was termed Mi Hodgsoni by Gray, and it is identical with 

 M. personata, Gould, and M. cashmerensis, Brooks. M» luzo- 



