Birds of Celebes: MotacillJdae. 533 



111 its nestling plumage the black liorse-slioe of M. flava recalls the winter 

 plumage of the throat of M. alba and higubris; also to some extent the plumage of 

 Otocorys and others. 



Eggs. 4, 5, sometimes 6; dirty white, closely marbled and clouded with clay-brown, yellowish 

 buff or greyish: size 19.5 X 15 mm (Dresser VIII). 



Nest. Of fine rootlets, grass, straw, bents, sometimes intermixed mth moss; placed on the 

 ground (Dresser VIII). 



Distribution. In summer ahuost the whole of Europe; in winter Africa almost to the Cape 

 (Meyer & Helm a 9]; Asia IVIinor (Robson XI); Transcaspia (Radde a 4); Persia 

 (Blanf. VIII); S. E. Siberia (Dybows. and Godlews. a 7, Schrenck a 7); Kam- 

 tschatka(Dybows. ^Y/, «7); Commodore Is. (a7); Alaska (Dall & Bannister FJI7, «7); 

 Kurile Islands (18); Mongolia (David a 2j; China (Styan 20, De La Touche 2i); 

 India — eastern part (Gates etc. a 3, 19); Burmah (Gates a 3); Audamans and Nicobars 

 (19); Malacca (Cantor XI); Sumatra (Buxton b 5, ModigL a 6); Natuna Is. 

 (Everett 22); Java (Horsf. XI, Vorderman b 11); Bali (Doherty 27); Flores 

 (Wallace b 10, XI); Timor (Wallace b 10, XI); Borneo (Mottley etc. b 10, XI, 

 15); Philippines — Palawan (Whitehead 15, 16, Platen 15), Luzon (Kittl. b 3, 

 Conrad 7, Everett 6 ff), Bohol and Mindanao (Ev. b 7, b 9), Negros (B. & W. 23); 

 Talaut Is. — Kabruang (Nat. Coll. b 13); Celebes — North (Meyer h 2, b 8, 

 Bruijn b 4, Faber and v. Musschenbr. in Dresd. Mus., P. & F. Sarasin 25), — 

 South (Wallace ^7, Meyer b 8, Platen in Dresden Mus., Weber d 1, etc.), — 

 East (Nat. Coll. 26); Saleyer and Kalao (Everett 27); Halmahera, Ternate, Tidore, 

 Burn, Ceram, Amboina (Salvad. b 10, Sharpe XI). 



MotaciIJa horealis (Sundev.), the M. viridis of many authors, is distinguished 

 by Dr. Sharpe from the jJi^esent species by the absence, or almost complete 

 absence, of the white or pale superciliary stripe and by its black ear-coverts. 

 The two forms have very similar geographical ranges, but there appears to be 

 no evidence that M. horealis has ever occurred in the East Indies, whereas the 

 white-eyebrowed M. flava has a wide distribution there in winter and often 

 occurs in Borneo in particular, as shown by Whitehead (14). in great abun- 

 dance. 



M. flava again differs in the eastern and western parts of its range. Com- 

 pared with sjsecimens killed in Saxony, the nine Celebesian examples before us 

 distinguish themselves by their much longer hind claw: viz. 11 — 14 mm as 

 against 9 mm, a difference already ascertained to exist between European examples 

 and a Celebes one by Prof. W. Blasius (b 12) and later confirmed by Mr. J. 

 Biittikofer, who appears to us to misapply the name horealis, just as other 

 authors have misapplied — or rather have variously employed — the name 

 viridis, which, as Dr. Sharpe shows (Cat. B., X, 522), may well be rejected. 



Mr. Brooks (Str. F. 1878, VII, 139) again affirms that Indian specimens 

 of M. flava differ from European ones, the head of the latter being darker and 

 the cheeks less mixed with white; this form is allowed by Dr. Sharpe to rank 

 as a valid subspecies, M. heema Sykes, its range being "Western and Central 

 Siberia, wintering in Afghanistan and in India", but both ftava and horealis occur 

 in India as well. 



