618 BUDYTES VIEIDIS. 



Another male (27th October) is in the following singular plumage : — Head and hind neck dusky bluish slate, blending 

 almost imperceptibly into the brownish olive of the back, the feathers on this part being brown at the centre and 

 olive at the margins, those which are abraded are mingled with a few olive-green ones ; wing-coverts margined 

 with greyish white ; rump pale olive ; lores, cheeks, and ear-coverts black ; beneath yellow, of medium brightness ; 

 chin and along the lower mandible whitish ; chest dashed with dark brown, like a young bird ; thighs slate- 

 coloured. 



This specimen has the appearance of a young bird, were it not for its partially summer-coloured head and total absence 

 of eye-stripe. It is probably a bird which is in the 2nd year, and from some cause has not properly assumed the 

 breeding-plumage in the first season. 



A Lapland specimen (29th June : wing 3-2) is not unlike the above (27th October), except that, being in summer 

 plumage, the head is bluer aud the back greener, the face and ear-coverts are very black, and there is no super- 

 ciliuin ; the under surface not so yellow as in the summer male from Futtehgur. 



Young (mus. Seebohm : Tenesay, 8th August, 1877). Scarcely full-grown. Above brownish, tinged with green ; 

 some of the feathers on the head and hind neck nearly all black ; a whitish supercilium ; longer upper tail-coverts 

 blackish ; wings dark brown, the coverts very dark and broadly edged with dusky whitish ; tertials edged whitish, 

 the tail as in the adult ; chin, throat, and lower part of face yellowish white ; ear-coverts mixed with black ; a 

 blackish moustachial stripe ; most of the feathers across the breast black, edged with yellowish ; beneath yellowish 

 white; flanks dusky. 



Another, shot on the same day, is greener above, wants the black head-feathers, is not so dark on the chest, and has 

 the under surface dusky whitish. 



A third example, likewise killed on the same day, has a conspicuous supercilium and above it a black line, a white 

 patch behind the ears, a very bold moustachial streak ; chest patched with black ; under surface whitish. Wing 3 - 0. 



. 1 y, arling (Colombo, 23rd October). In moult to first winter plumage. Wing 3-3 inches. Above olive-brown, mixed 

 on the back with a few olive feathers : the head browner than the back, with imperfect yellowish- white supercilia ; 

 rump olive-green ; upper tail-coverts dark brown, edged with olive-green ; wing-coverts broadly margined as in 

 the nestling ; chin and throat white, with the new yellow feathers appearing ; fore neck and under surface yellow ; 

 chest tinged with fulvous, the feathers partially brown ; the sides of the chest almost entirely brown. 



This example proves that before migrating tho long wing is acquired, together with most of the yellow under surface, 

 and that after arrival the new face- and throat-feathers are donned. 



Nearly all immature specimens possess, during winter, in Ceylon the eye-stripe ; but it is of varying size, and rarely 

 only present on one side. Many examples, which are apparently young, from the brown marks on the chest, 

 have tho head dusky cinereous, and separated from the more olive-colour of the back by a perceptible margin on the 

 hind neck ; they have the cheeks, just beneath the centre of the eye, striped with white. In March, the summer 

 plumage is commenced to be acquired by moult. A female shot on the 17th is doDning a narrow whitish super- 

 cilium aud dusky bluish head ; the quills are those of winter, and there is no sign of them being shed, and the old 

 wing-covert feathers are acquiring a yellowish tinge. The male above described (17th April), which is in full 

 moult as regards the head and under surface, retains the old quills. I am therefore under the impression that 

 these are not moulted until arrival at the breeding-haunts, and perhaps not until the bird is going to return in 

 the autumn. 



Examples may be obtained as late as June with the summer livery not complete ; such a one in Mr. Seebohm's museum, 

 dated Tenesay, 4th June, has the head slaty, patched with greenish ; the green of the back is lighter than my 

 Futtehgur example. Another from Tromso, Norway, which is perhaps a yearling in change to breeding-plumage, 

 lias the head pure bluish grey, and is brownish olive, like immature birds, on the back. 



This species takes the name of viridis, which is much senior to cinerocapilla. Specimens from Europe are 

 inseparable from Asiatic ones, although, as a rule, they seem to have darker heads and more sombre-green backs : 

 and I have seen one from Transvaal which I cannot separate from an Indian specimen, 

 isely allied to B. viridis, and almost entirely resembling it in winter plumage, are two other species of Yellow Field- 

 Wagtail found in India, viz. B.jlava and B. melanocephala. The first-named is scattered over the whole of Europe 

 and most of Africa and Asia. In summer plumage the male has a pale bluish-grey head, a broad white supercilium, 

 the upper surface pale yellowish green, with the wing-coverts very broadly edged with yellowish ; under surface very 

 rich yellow. The female has a brownish head, with broad white supercilium. Wing 3 - l in both sexes; the bill is 

 slenderer am/ sharper than in either of the other species. 

 B. ohala in summer plumage has the head, nape, and face coal-black, without a supercilium, as a rule — though 



