Subgenus LIMOXIDKOMUS*. 

 Differs structurally from Motacilla in its slightly stouter bill and shorter tail, as also in its 

 different style of coloration. 



Of sylvan and partly arboreal habits, and with a different motion of the tail. 



LIMONIDKOMFS INDICUS. 



(THE WOOD-WAGTAIL.) 



Motacilla indica, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 962 (1788) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 121 



(1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 268. 

 Nemoricola indica, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1844, xvi. p. 479 ; id. Cat, B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 136 



(1849); Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 353 (1856); Jerdon, B. of Ind. 



ii. p. 226 (1863) ; Fairbank, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 260. 

 Limonidromits indicus, Gould, B. of Asia, pt. xiv. (1862); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 458; 



Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 365 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 239 ; Hume, ibid. 1875, 



p. 142; Armstrong, ibid. 1876, p. 329; Bourdillon, t.c. p. 401; Hume & Davison, 



ibid. 1878, B. of Tenass. p. 364 ; Ball, ibid. vii. p. 219. 

 The Black-breasted Wagtail, Jerdon. Nget Rahat, Arrakan (Blyth) ; Uzhalla-jitta, Telugu 



(Jerdon) ; Rode Rode, Malay (Blyth). 

 Gomarita, lit. "Dung-spreader," Sinhalese (Layard). 



Adult male and female. Length 6-5 to 6*7 inches ; wing 3-0 to 3-2 ; tail 2-9 to 3-1 ; tarsus 2-7 to 2-75 ; middle toe 

 and claw - 72 ; hind toe and claw 0-55 ; bill to gape 0-7 to 075. The largest example in my series is a, female. 



Iris olive-brown ; bill, upper mandible dark brown, lower fleshy ; legs fleshy, feet washed with brownish, claws brown. 



\liove brownish olive-green, slightly duskier on the forehead and above the supercilium, which, with the orbital fringe, 

 is whitish : upper tail-coverts, tail, and wings blackish brown, deepening to black on the wing-coverts and part 

 of the secondaries : tips of major and median wing-coverts yellowish white, forming two conspicuous bands across 

 the wing ; outer edge of primaries about the centre of the feather, a marginal patch near the tips of the secon- 

 daries, margins of some of the longer tertials, and a band at the base of the primaries the same ; outer tail- 

 feathers white, except at the base of the inner webs, and the outer edge and terminal portion of the penultimate 

 the same ; beneath white, tinged with yellowish on the chest, across which there is a black band succeeded by a 

 black-brown one, incomplete in the centre and generally joined there to the upper ; flanks shaded with smoky grey ; 

 primary under wing-coverts brownish with yellow tips ; long secondary under coverts whitish. The pale portion 

 of the face in some specimens is barred with brownish. 



Young ('.'). 1 have not seen any very young examples ; but a specimen which appeared, on examination of the organs, 

 to be immature is whiter beneath, and has the flanks less dusky than other skins in my collection. 



06s. Mr. Hume gives the following dimensions of specimens from Tenasserim : — " Male. Length 6-7 to 6-75 inches ; 



* This is an isolated form of Wagtail, differing chiefly from Motacilla in its habits, and I therefore adopt Gould's 

 term Limonidromus. The difference in bill and tail is barely appreciable, for true Motacilla; vary inter se in this respect ; 

 and as to the band across the chest, we have it in some of the Black-and- White Wagtails — for instance, in the African 

 MotariMa vidua, in the winter-plumage of M. alba, &c. The motion of its tail is a slow lateral one, and not a vertical 

 shaking as in all other Wagtails. This I consider to be its distinguishing characteristic. It was first named Nemorkola 

 by Blyth ; but this name was changed by Gould to the present, it having been adopted previously by Hodgson for another 

 mus of birds. 



