218 
2 
Young in first autumn (Pagham, July). Upper parts brownish olive, tinged with green on the rump; under- 
parts buffy white, tinged with sulphur-yellow on the lower abdomen; the lower throat and breast washed 
with brownish buff, forming a sort of dark band; superciliary stripe buffy white; wings and tail as in 
the adult, but with rather broader and whiter margins, tinged with buff, but not with yellow. 
Obs. In autumn dress the adult birds much resemble the young above described, but lack the buffy brown 
on the lower throat and breast. But sometimes the old males appear to retain their summer dress very 
late; for one killed on the 16th September differs only from old males in full spring plumage in having 
the underparts rather paler. I have figured an old male with the yellow head from Southern Russia, in 
which plumage it is called MW. campestris by the continental dealers; but I may add that I have an old 
male from Hampstead, near London, in the same plumage, except that, if any thing, the Russian 
specimen is a trifle cleaner and brighter in colour, though there is scarcely any difference between 
them. In this plumage the sides of the head and forehead, as far as the centre of the crown, are like 
the underparts, rich canary-yellow, and only towards the hind crown and nape does this colour 
eradually merge into green on the hind neck and back. Donovan (/. c.) figures a British-killed 
bird which is much more richly coloured than any South-Russian example I have ever seen, the 
entire head and upper neck being rich canary-yellow. My second specimen, from Southern Russia, 
has the head coloured as in ordinary adult British birds. 
TuovcH tolerably widely distributed in Europe, and found also in Africa and in Western Asia, 
the present species appears to be common only in Western Europe, being elsewhere only a rare 
strageler. In the British Isles it is the only common species of Yellow Wagtail, excepting 
Motacilla sulphurea, being a regular summer visitant to our isles, arriving late in March or 
early in April, and leaving again in September, being during the summer season very generally 
distributed throughout England and Wales, excepting, Professor Newton says, Cornwall and 
Devon. Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that he never saw it in the Channel Islands, nor is it 
mentioned in Professor Ansted’s list; but he was told that it occasionally visited Guernsey 
during the spring and autumn passage, and he possesses the skin of one killed there in 
September 1875. In Somersetshire, he adds, it is a common summer visitant, and remains 
to breed in most parts of the county. In Scotland it is, as in England, a common bird during 
the summer season; and Mr. Robert Gray says (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 114) that “in some parts 
of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire the Oatear or Seed-Lady, as this species is called, is very common 
on its arrival im the month of April. It appears to keep in flocks for a few days before 
becoming dispersed, and may be then obtained in some numbers by collectors. Towards the 
end of April they betake themselves to their old haunts, occupying a tolerably wide tract in the 
west of Scotland, where they are generally established in pairs at suitable intervals. On the 
east of Scotland the Yellow Wagtail is distributed in like numbers as far as Forfarshire; and it 
has occurred several times in Orkney.” It is also included by the late Dr. Saxby in his ‘ Birds 
of Shetland, as it occurs in Unst, being, however, he adds, a rare straggler. 
In Ireland it is a rare species, and, so far as can be ascertained, appears to occur merely as 
a straggler, not remaining to breed. Thompson writes (B. of Ireland, i. p. 222) as follows:— 
“The observations of ornithologists in various parts of the country show that it is generally a 
rare species, To myself it has occurred but once in a wild state, except about Toome, on the 
24th of June, 1832. In that instance one was seen in a turf bog on the confines of the county 
