Birds of Celebes: Motacillidae. 537 



4 examples there, and towards the end of May, 1894, 5 examples, the last being 

 a late date for a migratory species. 



An observation of singular interest connected with the winter migration of 

 this Wagtail in the East is recorded by Mr. S. Bligh [d7), who when tra- 

 velling in Ceylon on 24*'' November, 1887, was attracted by seeing several Wag- 

 tails (M. melanope) towards evening "on the top of a low bazaar-building (a 

 native shop) ; in a few minutes the number was doubled, and by this time small 

 troops of them kept passing the rest-house, and other flocks were gathering 

 from all sides,- till thousands had collected; Swallows (Hirundo rustica) then 

 began to arrive in flocks, and all commenced sweeping round over a small 

 garden of native coffee of an acre or two in extent . . . The rest-house keeper 

 . . . told me that they came there all the last cold season, for the first time, 

 to roost in the coffee. By this time a vast swarm of the two species had 

 arrived and it was getting dusky. The rest-house keeper sent a boy to frighten 

 up those that had settled ; they went up in a cloud , and the rustling of their 

 tiny wings was distinctly heard by me a hundred yards off; they rose in a 

 copula-shaped mass, and were as thick as bees in a swarm; there must have 

 been 30,000 or 40,000 birds on the wing at that moment, the Wagtails forming, 

 as I estimated, about a third or fourth of the number. The boy was called 

 away, and soon all the birds descended before it was quite dark; when settled, 

 the Swallows kept up an incessant simmering chirping for some time, but I 

 could not hear a Wagtail's note at all. The sight was a wonderful one; at 

 daylight the birds all departed very quickly and quietly". 



It is of much interest to know that the birds returned to the same spot 

 two years in succession , and in such numbers ; a similar case of migratory 

 Collocaliae resorting for more than one year to an old shed in the Andamans 

 has been described by Davison (see Collocalia fuciphaga, p. 332). Such facts speak 

 strongly for traditional (if the word can be used) migration routes. The pheno- 

 menon of migration assumes a simpler aspect if it be that birds have certain 

 Avell-known resting-places at stages in their long journey — well-known at least 

 to the older travellers, which again acquired their experience from the previous 

 generation. Pigeon-fanciers know that their birds cannot find their way in an 

 unknown country. 



GENUS ANTHUS Bclist. 



The Pipits wear a Lark-like plumage of tawny, streaked above and more 

 or less on the under parts with black or blackish. This, and their short tails 

 and pale legs will serve to distinguish them from the Wagtails, to which they 

 are very like structurally. The tarsus is scutellated in front, but covered with 

 an entire lamina behind, which forms a means of distinguishing them from the 

 Larks, in which the tarsus is scutellated behind as well as before. The Pipits 

 nest on the ground, laying mottled eggs. They are found both in the Old and 

 New Worlds, but in the East not further than Celebes, the Moluccas and Timor. 



Meyer ck Wigleswurlh, Birds of Celebes (Nov. LWli, 1S'J7). 68 



