148 
BLACK-HEADED A'ELLOW WAGTAIL. 
colour from M. fiaveola, (our Yellow Y'agtail,) up to 
the present bird, and he has sent me specimens which 
bear out this opinion. It is, in fact, very probable 
that all the European Yellow Y^agtails are permanent 
varieties or races of the same type. Mr. Tristram 
writes, “I have obtained M. fiaveola, (Ray’s AYagtail,) 
in Morocco, where it is certainly the general, if not 
the only variety. In Spain and Portugal I have got 
it, and not J/. fiava, and I presume that on the 
Atlantic coast 31. fiaveola is the commonest form. In 
Algeria 31. fiava is almost universal, but I have twice 
shot 31. fiaveola in its passage in the Bay of Algiers. 
At Tunis, and further east, I have only found 31. fiava 
and ’J/. cinereo-cajnlla. At Pyles (Navarino,) I got 
31. melanocepliala, which is also very common at Athens, 
where I saw no other. In Palestine I got 31. melano- 
cephala only, but I saw at Jerusalem, in Dr. Rotte’s 
room, a skin of 31. fiava. Thus it aj^pears to me that 
the varieties glide into one another, the hlacJc on the 
head increasing in intensity as roe go eastwards^ 
These are very interesting remarks, and clearly lean 
towards the very strong inference that these birds have 
a common origin. Count Mlihle has taken the opposite 
view, and gives the following as his reasons. He says 
in the first place, that in Greece the plumage of 31. 
fiava is the same as with us, that it never mixes witli 
melanocephala, and that, while the former is found in 
the districts of Lavadien, Malo, and Lamia, the latter 
occurs in the Morea; and that, where 31. fiava is 
found, there also shall we meet with 31. alba, but never 
31. melanocephala. He further remarks that 31. melano- 
cephala goes away early Avith 3Ierops apiaster and 
Enihcriza ccesia, Avhile 31. fi.ava may be found in 
Avinter, and that among hundreds of specimens of 
