BUDYTES VIEIDIS. 619 



very rarely, Mr. Brooks says, a thin white line is present. The female has a browner head, with no supercilium. 

 It has the bill stouter than B. flava, but not so deep at the base as in B. viridis. When the three species are laid 

 side by side, the difference in the bill is at once perceptible. The Black-headed Wagtail is found in Eastern 

 Europe, India, and China. 



Distribution. — To the student of Ceylon ornithology it must be interesting to know that this widely-spread 

 species, inhabiting the better part of Europe and Asia, and also the north of Africa, was first described from 

 Ceylon, where it is only a winter visitant, from a specimen sent home by that indefatigable collector, Governor 

 Loten, to Brown, who figured it in his ' Illustrations/ From Brown's drawing Gmelin took his description. 



It arrives in Ceylon about the 20th of September in small numbers in the young stage ; a week or two 

 later a large influx, many of which are old birds, takes place, and by the 10th or 15th October the species is 

 abundantly diffused through all the low country, but is withal more numerous in the maritime portions than 

 far inland. It is less partial to the extremely dry and arid region of the south-east than to other portions of 

 the sea-board ; on the grass-lands surrounding the northern tanks of the interior it is plentiful. It does not 

 ascend the hills, either in the centre or the south of the island, not having been recorded in any part above 

 1000 feet. In the Western and Southern Provinces it commences to pass northwards about the 20th March, 

 migrating chiefly in the mornings, and its numbers decrease gradually through the month of April until the 

 last birds disappear about the 5th of May. This latter date is the very latest in the district of Colombo that 

 I have noted ; and long ere this, as will presently be seen, it has begun to pass through some parts of Asia to 

 northern regions. 



This Wagtail is also a cold-weather visitant to India, and is spread, more or less, over the whole empire, 

 extending into Burmali and southwards to Tenasserim. Thence it ranges as fax as some of the Malay islands, 

 as I observe that Lord Tweeddale includes it in Mr. Buxton's Lampong collection (S.E. Sumatra) . It doubtless 

 inhabits, during the season, the intermediate tract of country, the Malay peninsula, down which it must pass 

 to reach Sumatra. In the Andaman Islands it also takes up its quarters ; but it is not so numerous as the 

 allied and perhaps more widely-distributed species, B. flava. Mr. Hume only records (in his List, Str. Feath. 

 1874) the procuring of two examples. It extends eastward to China, where it is, according to Swinhoe, found 

 in pairs in the spring ; to this region it probably finds its way from Mongolia or from Trans-Baikal, if it ranges 

 so far eastwards. When Jerdon wrote his work on the Birds of India, he included the present and the other 

 two species of Field-Wagtail [B. flava and B, melanocephala) under the title of B. viridis, and said that it was 

 exceedingly abundant in every part of India. Since that time, however, Messrs. Anderson, Brooks, Hume, 

 and others have paid much attention to this group (which is somewhat puzzling in winter plumage) and have 

 demonstrated the fact that all three species inhabit India, so that they have been heretofore confounded with one 

 another. It transpires accordingly that B. flava is quite as common, if not commoner, in some parts of the 

 empire than our bird. There is no reason why it should not occur in Ceylon, although it does not seem to 

 have generally such a southerly range as the present. As regards various observers in India, we find that 

 Dr. Fairbank records it from Ahmednaggar, and that Mr. Davidson says it is common in the Deccan. In the 

 district of Furreedpore it is numerous during the cold weather. Captain Beavan writes that it is very " abundant 

 at Barrackpore in the beginning of the cold weather;" he likewise found it numerous at Umballah. Further 

 south, on the east side of the peninsula, Mr. Hume records it from Sambalpur. In Central India, I under- 

 stand, it is common in localities. Mr. Anderson sent it to me from Futt ehgur, where he also procured its 

 two allies above mentioned. In the north-west I observe that neither Captain Butler nor Mr. Hume record 

 it from the Guzerat district ; but here it has, no doubt, been overlooked, as it must diverge to that part in 

 migrating into India. In Sindh, it is, however, common, as also at the Sambhur Lake. In Pegu it is 

 abundant, according to Mr. Oates, and it is likewise common in Tenasserim, and has occurred as high as 

 3000 feet in Karennee. In Turkestan it occurs in passage, according to Severtzoff, but does not breed there. 

 Dr. Finsch met with it in the valley of the Irtisch in Western Siberia ; and Mr. Seebohm found it on the 

 Yenesay, where it breeds as far north as 69£-° N. lat., thus ranging into the Arctic circle ; it arrived, he says, in 

 the valley in great numbers on the 5th of June. It passes through Palestine in April on its way north, perhaps 

 from Egypt or Arabia. Canon Tristram thus writes of it :— " When at Jericho, April 14th, I observed a 

 large flock of Budytes cinereocapilla, evidently on their migration ; they remained but one evening, and I 

 secured several specimens, all of this form ; on the next morning the flock took its departure for the north." 



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