2 
becoming rather darker on the rump; quills blackish brown, externally narrowly margined with white, 
the elongated inner secondaries and wing-coverts blacker, and broadly margined with white; tail black, 
except the two outer rectrices on each side, which are white, narrowly margined with blackish on the 
inner web; underparts, except as above stated, white; flanks washed with dark ashy grey; bill and legs 
black ; iris dark brown. Total length about 7 inches, culmen 0°55, wing 3°55, tail 3°65, tarsus 0°9. 
Adult Female in spring. Resembles the male; but the black on the nape and on the throat does not extend 
so far down, and the general tone of coloration is duller. One specimen I have from Asia Minor, shot 
late in April, resembles the male, except that the crown is grey, not black, and the sides of the head 
are washed with grey. As a rule the female is a little smaller than the male. 
Adult in winter (Malta, November). Upper parts as in the male in spring; but the black on the head and 
nape is intermixed with grey, underparts white, the black on the throat reduced to a crescentic patch 
on the lower throat, the chin and upper throat being white with a primrose-yellow tinge, which latter 
also pervades the rest of the white on the head. 
Young of the year (Stockholm, Ist October). Resembles the adult in winter; but the upper parts have an 
olive tinge, the crown is coloured like the back, the sides of the head and throat have a more yellow 
tinge, and the crescentic mark on the lower throat is narrower. 
TOLERABLY widely distributed throughout the Palearctic Region, at least as far east as Lake 
Baikal, the present species is met with in almost all parts of Europe, except in the extreme 
north ; and in the winter season it passes as far south as Senegal, in Africa. 
In Great Britain it is a rare bird, being almost entirely replaced by its close ally Motacilla 
lugubris, which is the predominant British species. The White Wagtail, however, not only appears 
to have been met with as a straggler, but has also bred with us; for Mr. More, in his article 
on the distribution of birds in Great Britain during the nesting-season, gives several instances on 
record of its having been found nesting. It appears first to have been recognized as a British 
species by Mr. F. Bond, who, in May 1841, shot three specimens at Kingsbury reservoir near 
London ; and since then it has been tolerably often, indeed almost regularly, recorded. Mr. Rodd 
speaks of it as being not uncommon in Cornwall in the summer months; and Mr. Gatcombe 
informs me that he has shot a few specimens near Plymouth. Mr. A. G. More states that a pair 
were shot and their nest taken at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, and it has been often obtained on 
the south coast of England, in Sussex and Kent. Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that he never 
met with it in Somersetshire, but believes that it has been obtained near Bristol. Referring to 
its occurrence on the east coast, Professor Newton states that, curiously enough, it does not 
appear to have been met with in Suffolk or Norfolk; but Mr. Cordeaux says (B. of Humber 
Distr. p. 42) that he has on two or three occasions during the last ten years met with specimens 
on the north-east coast of Lincolnshire during the spring migration. Macgillivray obtained it 
on several occasions in the south of Scotland. My. Robert Gray states that he obtained a single 
example at Dunbar in the winter of 1847; and Dr. Saxby writes (B. of Shetl. Isl. p. 82) that he 
saw a pair near Lerwick on the 11th June, 1854. In Ireland, Thompson states, it is very rare; 
Dr. Ball saw a specimen on the 18th June, 1846, at Roundwood, near Dublin; and Professor 
Newton writes (Yarr. Brit. B. i. p. 549) that Mr. R. Warren, jun., killed one on the Island of 
Bartra, in Killala Bay, on the 25th April, 1851. 
