26 T-he WagialU of India, 



species do vaiy from white to deep l>lood-red, and from the size 

 of a -Pig-eon to that of a Peregrine ; bid it will require a good 

 deal of fnrth^i' evidence to -convince me of the fact. 



A, O. H. 



Ire Magtails icrf liibm, ]Sl"o. 1, 



There is certainly no group of birds that is more troublesome 

 er perplexing than the wagtails, and though I cannot pretend 

 to have solved all the difficulties in regard to our Indian mem- 

 bers of the group, I hope to be able to furnish a few notes that 

 Baay facilitate their ultimate solution. 



Im the present paper I propose to confine my remarks to the 

 grey and black wagtails o-f which J£ Alba, Linn, and M. Yarrelli, 

 Gould, may be taken as types. 



Setting aside Motaoilla Madraspatana, the large s<ize (length 

 on the average, 9 inches ; wing, 4 inches or nearly so,) and well 

 defined piumage of which renders it always easy of identifica- 

 tion, there remain five species which have been admitted hy Mr. 

 Blyth into 'Our Indian Avifauna. In two of these, in their breed- 

 ing plumage at any rate, the whole back is Mack, namely 

 M. Luzoniemvs, Scopoli, and M. Hodgsoni, G. R. Gray ; while in 

 the other three, -the backs remain at all seasons grey ; namely 

 M. Tersouata, Gould, M. DuJcJiunemis, Sykes, and M. Alba, 

 Linnaeus. 



Besides M, Lnzonhnsis and Hedgsoni, Mr. Gray admits a 

 third eastern species Jl£ Japonica, Swinhoe, figured hy Schlegel 

 in the Fauna Japonica, as M. Lugens. 



All these three black-backed races are somewhat larger than 

 the grey-backed ones with which we shall have to deal hereafter, 

 the wings in the males varying apparently from 3" 7 to 3*9 in- 

 ches, while in the same sex in Alba and Duhhunensis, they average 

 from 3'4 to 3* 6 inches, and in Ber sonata from 3 '5 to 3*7 inches, 

 only in one specimen out of fifty extending to 3'75 inches. The 

 bills also in the eastern black-backed races are as a rule con- 

 spicuously longer. 



Mr. Sehlegel, if I understand him «orrectly, considers all these 

 three eastern black-backed races to be one and the same species, 

 and he further unites with them M. Lugubris, Pallas, (figured by 

 ■Gould, birds of Europe, pi. 143,) which has a partly grey back, 

 as one stage of the winter plumage of this same species. 



In regard to Lugubris, I am not in a position to offer any 

 useful opinion; but I have every reason to believe that 

 Ltizoniensis, Hodgsoni, and Japonica are only different stages 



