﻿250 VV. E. Brooks — Some Ornithological JSfotes and Corrections. [No. 4, 



of the lower neck, but this is sometimes absent, even when the bird is in full 

 plumage. B. citreoloides, Hoclgs. is identical with this latter species, and 

 not with the former, as Mr. Hume supposes in ' Lahore to Yarkand.' Hodg- 

 son's drawing represents a yellow-headed wagtail with a grey back. The 

 back feathers are always more or less changed when the head in spring be- 

 comes pure yellow ; Hodgson's drawing thus shewing a uniform grey back 

 with the yellow head, is clearly a representation of a male B. citreola. When 

 the other species, B. calcaratiis^ Hodgs., attains the yellow head, the back 

 is either blotched largely with jet-black or is entirely black. It is therefore 

 an utter impossibility for Hodgson's B. citreoloides to have been the black 

 backed bird."^' B. citreoloides, Hodgs. is a synonym of B. citreola, Pallas, 

 and as such should sink into disuse. Hodgson's drawing of B. calcaratus is 

 lifesized, and represents the bird in winter plumage with yellow supercilium, 

 olive cap , and grey back. In this plumage it closely resembles B. citreola 

 in its winter plumage. It is hy the long tarsus alone that I connect B. 

 calcaratus with the black-backed bird. The tarsus of B. citreola never 

 reaches the size given by Hodgson for B. calcaratus ; both in the drawing 

 and in the table of dimensions, the length of the tarsus given is that of the 

 largest black-backed birds I have procured. In ' Lahore to Yarkand' Mr. 

 Hume appears to consider Hodgson's description as inappHcable to the 

 black-backed species ; but I cannot see in what respect it does not suit. It 

 should be remembered that Hodgson measured the tarsus from the sole of 

 the foot, and not from the junction of the toes, the latter being the usual 

 mode of measurement. 



The females of all the six species I have noted, have their characteris- 

 tics, but it would add too much to the length of this paper to introduce 

 them now ; enough to say that they abundantly confirm my view of the 

 distinctness of each. 



These wagtails can only be properly worked out by the field observer, 

 and the confusion into which cabinet naturalists have thrown them is thus 

 easily accounted for. 



MoTACiLLA Cashmieien^sis, Brooks. 



•Is only M. Hodgsoni, Gray in full summer plumage. Having had 

 abundant opportunities of again observing this bird up the valley of the 

 Bhagaruttee, I am forced to the above conclusion. 



I formerly thought that M. Hodgsoni, Gray and M. personata, Gould 

 were identical, the former being the latter in breeding plumage : but 

 having lately had the advantage of Mr. Mandelii's fine series of M. Hodg- 



* Gould in his ' Birds of Asia' has misapplied the term to the black backed yellow 

 headed Wagtail. 



