The Blue-Headed Wagtail. i8s 



south. It passes through South Russia, Greece, and North-east Africa on migra- 

 tion, and winters in South Africa, whence it has been received from Damara I^and, 

 Natal, and the Transvaal. In Asia it is said to have about the same range to the 

 north, but in Alaska it breeds up to lat. 64°. It breeds throughout South Siberia, 

 Mongolia, and North China, wintering in India and Burma. In Turkestan it is 

 only known on migration. It is doubtful whether it has occurred in Persia, but it 

 breeds in the Caucasus." 



In the British Islands the Blue-headed Wagtail has chiefly occurred in the 

 southern, south-western, and eastern counties during the breeding-season, nests 

 having been recorded from Kent and Durham ; it has occurred a few times in 

 Scotland and Ireland, and has been seen in Shetland in the autumn. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the forehead, crown, and nape bluish- 

 grey ; back yellowish-olive, browner on the upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts dark 

 brown, tipped with yellowish-white ; flights dark brown ; secondaries with yellowish- 

 white margins ; tail feathers, excepting the two outer pairs, blackish-brown ; the 

 outer ones white, their inner webs edged with black ; lores and ear- coverts deep 

 slate-grey ; a white superciliary streak, and a second white streak below the lores ; 

 chin white ; remainder of under surface bright canary yellow ; bill and feet black ; 

 iris hazel. The female is duller in colouring, and the head is more olivaceous. 

 Young birds have the breast spotted with brown, and otherwise closely resemble 

 the female. The white eye-stripe is always present at all ages in both sexes. 



I met with this species in life about the end of May, or beginning of June, 

 1883, when I saw it in company with the Yellow Wagtail in an old deserted 

 brickfield at Murston, near Sittingbourne ; it was running along the margins of 

 the reedy pools (produced by the removal of the brick-earth and the subsequent 

 winter rains), flying up from time to time with a shrill cry which resembled that 

 of its Yellow congener, a sort of scizzur to my ear, though it has usually been 

 rendered chit-up by writers on British birds. 



Two years later Mr. William Drake of Kemsley, near Sheppey, sent me a 

 nest found by one of his boys among the long wiry grass on the saltings near 

 the creek, informing me that it was the nest of a Yellow Wagtail, as the boy had 

 seen the birds, which he described as having a "black head with white ring," 

 evidently referring to the superciliary and subloral white streaks, the head probably 

 appearing, at a short distance, to be blackish in contrast with the yellowish colouring 

 of the back : the eggs (six in number) are for the most part almost indistinguish- 

 able from those of the common Yellow Wagtail, but one or two are distinctly 

 mottled, and correspond exactly with authentic eggs of the Blue-headed species in 

 my possession. 



