1863.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. 275 



86. MoTAciLLA OCULARIS, Swinhoe. 



Under the term 31. lugens seu lugubris there has been a confu- 

 sion of the races of the Pied Wagtails with black eye-streaks, which 

 I have been at some pains to clear up. The difficulty began with 

 Temminck, who, in his 'Manuel d'Ornithologie,' p. 175, described 

 Pallas' s Russian species from Japanese examples. He there gives 

 the sjimmer plumage as having the forehead white. At a later 

 date Professor Schlegel refused to acknowledge the existence of 

 Pallas's species as a European bird. Pallas, however, procured 

 his typical specimens, as he tells us, from the shores of the Black 

 Sea; and it has since been brought by officers from the Crimea, 

 and by Mr. Tristram from Egypt. One of Mr. Tristram's two spe- 

 cimens (both of vfhich I have carefully examined) has been figured 

 in Mr. Bree's work on the Birds of Europe. I have no hesitation, 

 therefore, in applying Pallas's name to the race or species found in 

 "Western Asia adjoining Europe. Middendorff (Sib. Reis.) applies 

 Pallas's name to the Wagtail of Amoorland, which, from his descrip- 

 tion, is identical with the bird found throughout China, of which I 

 possess numerous examples in all plumages from Amoy, and one 

 adult summer male from Tientsin. This permanently grey-backed 

 race I have named M. ocularis. In Japan a race occurs similar to 

 the Chinese bird, in having the broad white forehead, but resembling 

 the true M. lugubris in its summer black back. The following dia- 

 gnosis will, I think, serve to distinguish the three races or species. 



^ (1.) MoTACiLLA LUGUBRIS, Temm. 



M. albeola, var. lugens, Pall. 



From two specimenss hot by Mr. Tristram, 2nd February I860, 

 in Egypt. The pectoral band incomplete, showing the birds to be 

 in winter plumage. Forehead black ; ypper parts blackish brown, 

 with no indications of bluish grey ; the primaries are white for only 

 one-third at their bases, and the lateral tail-feather is entirely 

 white. 



Hub. Shores of Black Sea ; Odessa; Turkey; Egypt (in winter). 



(2.) MOTACILLA JAPONICA, Swiuhoc. 



M. lugubris seu lugens, Temm. & Schleg. Faun. Jap. 



The adult summer plumage of this race has been correctly figured 

 in the ' Fauna Japonica.' The forehead is always white; greater 

 part of primaries pure white, but the lohite lateral tail-feathers with 

 a black inner edge. In winter its back becomes smoke-grey, but 

 always more or less patched with black, with a black shoulder. 



Hab. Japan ; straggles to the China coast in winter. 



(3.) MOTACILLA OCULARIS, SwiuhoC. 



M. alba, var. lugens, von Schrenck & Midd. 

 M. albeola, var. kamschatica. Pall. 



Back, scapulars, and shoulder-patch perennially light French 

 grey ; quills more or less broadly edged with tvhite, never so entirely 

 white as in foregoing ; lateral white tail-feathers broadly edged in- 

 teriorly with black. In summer the breast blackens to the bill. 



I 



