BUDYTES VIEIDIS. 



(THE GREY-HEADED FIELD-WAGTAIL.) 



Motacilla viridis, Gm. Syst. Nat. p. 962, " ex Brown," Ceylon (1788) ; Dresser, B. of Europe, 

 pt. 40 (1875) ; Severtzoff in Dresser's Notes, Ibis, 1876, p. 178; Seebohm, Ibis, 1878, 

 p. 352. 



Budytes cinereocapilla, Bp. Comp. List B. p. 19 (1838); Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 364; 

 Hume, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 237 ; Oates, ibid. 1875, p. 142 ; Davison & Hume, Birds 

 of Tenass., Str. Feath. 1878, p. 363; Ball, Str. Feath. 1878, vii. p. 219; Cripps, t. c. p. 286. 



Budytes viridis (Gm.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 138 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 

 p. 121 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 268; Horsf. & Moore, 

 Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 350 (1854) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 222 (1863) ; Blyth, 

 Ibis, 1865, p. 50 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 458 ; Shelley, B. of Egypt, p. 129 (1872) ; 

 Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 22, et 1875, p. 398 ; Tweeddale, Ibis, 1877, p. 228. 



La Bergeronnette verte, or Green Wagtail, Brown, 111. Zool. pi. 39. fig. 2 ; Bergeronnette a tete 

 cendrde, French ; Wagtail Lark, Latham. Bilkya, Hind. ; Pastro marillo, Portuguese 

 in Ceylon. 



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



0'8 ; hind toe 0-4, claw (straight) - 45 ; bill to gape 0-65. 

 Iris dark brown ; bill blackish, base of lower mandible whitish or greenish grey ; legs and feet blackish ; soles yellow. 



Male, summer plumage (Futtehgur, 28th April). Forehead, crown, occiput, nape, and sides of the neck, just lower 

 down than the ear-coverts, uniform sombre bluish grey ; lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts black, over the left lore a 

 white streak, not extending to the eyebrows, above and behind the right eye another short white streak ; hind neck, 

 back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts brownish olive-green, sharply defined against the 

 blue neck ; the centres of the upper tail-covert feathers brownish : wings umber-brown ; the median and greater 

 secondary wing-coverts and the tertials broadly edged with pale yellowish ; the primary-coverts and the primaries 

 with fine pale edgings ; inner webs of the secondaries white at the base : tail brownish black, the outer feather all 

 white but the inner half of the inner web, which is brown to within i an inch of the tip ; the adjacent pair with 

 their inner webs the same, and the outer brown to within | an inch of the tip ; the dark central feathers edged 

 with olive-yellowish ; entire under surface from the chin to the under tail-coverts deep yellow, brightest on the 

 lower parts ; extreme point of chin white ; thighs brownish yellow, under wing-coverts yellowish. 



A female has the head not so blue, and a broader yellow eye-stripe. 



Male, winter -plumage (Ceylon, 29th November). Above dusky olive, greenest on the rump and upper tail-coverts, 

 and pervaded with slate-colour on the hind neck, and slightly brownish on the back ; lores and cheeks dark brown : a 

 moderately-defined narrow supercilium, longer over one eye than the other ; wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials 

 edged with whitish, tinged on the tertial margins with yellowish ; tail as above ; chin and throat white, washed 

 with yellow on the fore neck ; the under surface pale yellow, not nearly so rich as in summer ; chest washed at 

 the sides with brownish. 



Other examples have the head browner, and some the back more olive or the opposite (that is, browner) ; some want 

 the eye-stripe altogether; in one it is present on one side and not on the other; in fact scarcely any two 

 examples are perfectly alike. 



A male in change (Colombo, 17th April) has the forehead dusky olive, and the head partly bluish slate, these new 

 feathers appearing among the old greener ones ; the back is dusky olive-green, being clothed still with the winter 

 feathers ; wing-coverts and secondaries margined with yellowish white ; cheeks and lores changing to blackish ; 

 a narrow superciliuni, which is evidently disappearing from the moulting of the old feathers ; chin and throat 

 whitish; under surface pure yellow, with a few whitish feathers down the centre of the breast, the remains of the 

 winter plumage. 



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