BIRDS OE' NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 3 



except on upper portion; tail nearly as long as wing, sometimes 

 .longer;" the rectrices narrow and tapering terminally, but with 

 rounded tips; coloration black, gray, and white, or if with yellow 

 on under parts the throat and chest partly black and the back and 

 pileum gray.* 



Nidification. — Nest usually on ground, sometimes in holes among 

 rocks or buildings, open above, bulky, composed of dried grasses, 

 leaves, moss, etc., lined with wool, hair, or feathers; eggs with whitish, 

 pale bluish, or brownish ground color, profusely speckled. 



Mange. — Palsearctic, Indo-Malayan, and Ethiopian regions, most 

 developed in eastern portion of the first named; two Palsearctic species 

 accidental or occasional in Greenland and Alaska, respectively (the 

 latter once taken in Lower California). 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF MOTACILLA. 



a. Under tail-coverts white; upper tail-coverts black or dusky gray. 

 h. No black or dusky postocular streak, the sides of head entirely white; greater 

 wing-coverts with only their tip white, forming a narrow band. (Europe, 

 northern Africa, and greater part of Asia; accidental in Greenland. ) 



MotaciUa alba (p. 4) 

 66. A black or dusky postocular streak; greater wing-coverts with outer webs 

 white, or broadly edged with white, forming a large patch, 

 c. Black gray. 

 d. Exposed culmeu 12-13 mm. (Eastern Asia; occasional in Alaska and acci- 

 dental in Lower California.) MotaciUa ocularis (p. 6) 



dd. Exposed culnien 13-14 mm. (Eastern Asia.) 



MotaciUa lugens, winter plumages (extralimital) « 



cc. Back black MotaciUa lugens, summer adults. 



aa. Under tail-coverts yellow; upper tail-coverts olive-yellow or yellowish olive- 

 green. (Europe and Asia. ) MotaciUa melanope (extralimital) ^ 



«Much longer in M. longicauda. 



*The species of MotaciUa having yellow under parts may at once be distinguished 

 from the somewhat similarly colored species of Budytes by their short and strongly 

 arched, instead of long and slightly arched, hind claw; furthermore, all the species 

 of Budytes either have the back olive-green or else, if black or gray, the whole head 

 is yellow, and none of the species hg.ve black on the throat or chest. 



<! MotaciUa lugens " Pallas" Kittlitz, Kupf. Vog., 1832, 16, pi. 21, fig. 1; Stejneger, 

 Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 29, 1885, 287 (synonymy, crit., descriptions, etc.); Sharpe, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., x, 1885, 474, pi. 4, figs. 1-^. — MotaciUa leucoptera "Brehm" 

 Zander, Naumannia, iv, 1851, 14. — MotaciUa ocMlaris, part, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond., 1863, 275. — MotaciUa amurensis Seebohm, Ibis, 1878, 345, pi. 9. — MotaciUa 

 Icamtschatica Stejneger, Naturen, 1882, 182; 1884, 5; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., v, 1883, 

 7 L— MotaciUa blaldstoni Seebohm, Ibis, 1883, 91; 1884, 38. 



This handsome species, which breeds in Kamchatka (including the Commander 

 islands) very likely occasionally straggles to Alaska. 



<lMotaciUa melanope Pallas, Reis. Russ. Reichs, iii, 1776, 696; Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 

 i, 1788, 997; Dresser, Birds Europe, iii, 1875, 251, pi. 128. 



