GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. 415 
in April, and departing in September: it is excellently 
figured by M. Nilsson in the coloured illustrations of his 
Fauna of Scandinavia, and in his Tour in Lapland, Lin- 
neus mentions having seen this bird in that country 
on the 22nd of May 1732. This species is found in 
Sicily and Malta. William Thompson, Esq. while at 
sea in the month of April, 1841, on his passage from 
Malta to the Morea, noticed six of these birds visiting the 
deck of the vessel, and it is found also in Algeria, Nubia, 
and Egypt. Mr. Gould states that he has received skins 
of this bird from the Himalaya mountains; and M. Tem- 
minck includes it. also in his Catalogue of the Birds of 
Japan. 
This bird makes its nest on the ground in holes, some- 
times among exposed roots of trees, in cornfields and mea- 
dows, laying about six eggs, which, as figured in several 
Continental works, are so much like those of our common 
summer visitor to be in future called Ray’s Wagtail, that 
they can scarcely be distinguished. The food of this bird, 
according to M. Temminck, is flies, moths, small green 
caterpillars, and aquatic insects. 
The figure at the head of this article was taken, as be- 
fore observed, from a British-killed specimen. I am in- 
debted to Mr. Henry Doubleday for a pair of these birds ; 
and Mr. Hoy has very kindly allowed me the use of seven 
specimens killed at different seasons of the year. From 
these ten examples I am enabled to supply the following 
descriptions. 
The adult male, during that part of spring and summer 
which may be said to constitute the breeding-season, has 
the beak black ; the irides dusky brown; the top of the 
head, the lore, or space between the beak and the eye, 
the ear-coverts, and nape of the neck, lead-grey; over the 
