312 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE OKNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 



more confidiug than maculatus, guttatus and schistaceus, and 

 affects lower and more open parts of the streams than those 

 species. It is usually solitary, and often perches on boulders 

 in company with R. fuliginosus and Ch. leucocephalus. 



589 5is.— Motacilla hodgsoni, G. B. Gr. 



Two males, November and December. — Length, 7*8 ; expanse, 

 11-3 and 11-35; wing, 3-7; tail, 37 and 3-8 ; tarsus, 0-9; 

 bill from gape, 0"73 and 0*75 ; bill at front, 0'56 ; closed wings 

 short of tail, 2-15 and 2-3. 



The bill is large and strong ; whole back and sides of neck 

 black J the eye set in a diamond-shaped patch of white. 



Two females, November. — Length, 7*5 ; expanse, 11 and 11'2 ; 

 winof, 3*53 and 3'55 ; tail, 3'45 to 3*5 ; tarsus, 0*9 ; billfromgape, 

 0'74 ; bill at front, 0-52 ; closed wings short of tail, 2*2 and 2-25. 



Nape, sides of neck and rump black; back blackish and dark 

 grey. 



A young bird, September.— 'Length, 8; expanse, 10*8; wing, 

 3"45 ; tail, 3*5 ; tarsus, 0-9 ; bill from gape, 072 ; bill at front, 

 0'5 ; closed wings short of tail, 2*0. 



The vertex only blackish ; chin white ; throat, breast and 

 sides of neck black. 



Hodgson's Wagtail is common in the valley of Nepal and the 

 Nawakot district, in winter. It arrives in the valley about the 

 middle of September and leaves towards the end of April. 



This species is clearly distinct from leucopsis (luzoniensis), 

 and seems to me to belong to a different section ; it is more 

 allied to personata, and only resembles leucopsis in size and in 

 the assumption of a black back in summer. Observers in India, 

 as a rule, meet with the Wagtails only in winter, and the 

 statement that a certain species acquires a black back in 

 summer, 6r has that part always grey, cannot aid them, greatly 

 in identifying specimens in winter plumage or immature birds. 

 Excluding maderaspatana, which cannot be confounded with 

 any of the other species found in India, there are three pairs of 

 Wagtails, distinguished by constant characters, which may be 

 arranged as follows : — 



A. A white stripe down the sides of the neck, separating the 

 black of the head from that of the breast. 

 a. With a black streak across the ear-coverts, through 

 the eye to the base of the bill. 



1. Back always grey ; wing, 3*5 to 3'75 ; 



bill at front, 0*44! to ? ... ... occularis. 



2. Back black ... ... amurensis.^ 



* This {amurensis), as I have pointed out elsewhere, is Japonioa of Swinhoe. 

 Whether his name should be allowed to stand is a matter of opinion.— Ed. 



