GREY WAGTAIL. 203 



MOTACILLA SULPHUREA. 

 GREY WAGTAIL. 



(Plate 14.) 



Ficedula motaciUa flava, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 471, pi. xxiii. fig. 3 (1760). 



Motacilla melanope, Pall. Reis. Muss. Reichs, iii. p. 696 (1776). 



MotaciUa tschutachensis, Omel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 962 (1788). 



Motacilla boarula, Scop, apud Gtrwl. Syst. Nat. i. p. 997 (1788). 



Motacilla sulphurea, Beckst. Naiurg. JDentschl. ii. p. 459 (1807) ; et auctorum plu- 

 rimorum — {Kaup), Bonaparte, Degland^ Gerhe, {Horsfleld §• Moore), (Jerdon), 

 {HoldswortK), (Legge), {Hume), Irby, Shelley, Newton, &c. 



Motacilla cinerea, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. ^-c. Brit. Mus. p. 22 (1816). 



Motacilla bistrigata, Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 312 (1821, partim). 



Calobates sulphurea (Bechst.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 33 (1829). 



Budytes boarula (Scop.), apud Eyton, Cat. Brit. B. p. 15 (1836). 



Motacilla xantboschista, llodgs. Gray's Zool. MisceU. p. 83 (1844). 



Pallenura sulpburea (Bechst.), Bonap. Consp. i. p. 250 (1850). 



Pallenura javensis, Bonap. Consp. i, p. 250 (1850). 



The Grey Wagtail is sparingly distributed throughout England and 

 Wales, breeding in the mountainous districts and migrating into the lower 

 valleys and into the plains for the winter. In the Channel Islands it is 

 probably a resident. In Scotland it is more generally distributed than in 

 England, and though not found on the Outer Hebrides it occurs on several 

 of the inner islands. It occasionally visits Orkney in summer, and is 

 frequently driven by storms to the Shetlands in autumn. In Ireland it is 

 widely although locally distributed. 



The range of the Grey Wagtail extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 

 but does not appear to include either the Scandinavian or Kamtschatkan 

 peninsulas. It breeds throughout Central and Southern Europe, the 

 northern limit o£ its range being Holstein, West Russia south of Moscow, 

 and East Russia south of lat. 59°- In Siberia Finsch found it in the valley 

 of the Obb in lat. 67° ; but in the valley o£ the Yenesay I only obtained 

 one example in lat. 66^°, and MiddendorfE did not find it east of the Lena 

 north of lat. 62°. It breeds in Asia as far south as Persia, Turkestan, Cash- 

 mere South Siberia, and Japan. It is a resident in the Canaries, Madeiraj 

 and the Azores ; but in most parts of its range it is a partial migrant, breed- 

 ing on the mountains and wintering in the plaius^ and many of the 

 European birds cross the Mediterranean to winter in North Africa and 

 Palestine. To Siberia it is only a summer visitor, passing through Mon- 

 golia on migration and wintering in India and Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, 

 Java, the Burma peninsula, some of the Philippine Islands, Formosa, and 

 China. Some ornithologists distinguish the eastern race of this bird from 



