GREY AND WHITE WAGTAILS IN OXFORDSHIRE. 375 



masses of weed among the smooth, swirling ripples of the crystal 

 Itchen ; and, a few days later, I found them about the weirs on 

 the Kennet, in Berkshire. In North Oxon they do not appear 

 in autumn until quite the end of September or the beginning of 

 October. 



Our walk led us past the lower Grove Mill on the same 

 stream, where, curiously enough, another interesting pair of 

 Wagtails awaited us. On a bank of mud and stones in the 

 shallow water below the gates, a very light- coloured black and 

 white Wagtail caught my eye. A little watching proved that it 

 was the female of a pair which were apparently feeding young in 

 the nest, built probably somewhere in the farm buildings. The 

 male was a typical Pied Wagtail, very black. The bird I saw 

 first was as surely a White Wagtail. It does not seem to be 

 generally known that the female of Motacilla alba sometimes 

 (even when fully adult) has the crown of the head and occiput 

 chiefly grey, with hardly any black. I have a fully adult female, 

 killed at Fokstuen on the 5th Jul}', 1883, of which the following 

 is a description : — Crown and occiput grey, like the mantle, 

 slightly mottled with blackish grey. Forehead dull white, of 

 very small extent ; behind this, and blending into the grey, 

 grey and white mixed ; cheeks dull white (mottled with grey) 

 extending in a line over the eyes ; above this white line is a line 

 of black, and this is the only black on the top of the head. 

 Chin, throat, and gorget coal-black, not the least "mottled with 

 white," as stated in Yarrell. Rump grey ; upper tail-coverts lead- 

 grey. It may be said to have no pure white at all about the head, 

 and, with the exception of the lines at the side of the crown, no 

 black on the upper parts until we come to the tail itself. Our 

 bird to-day, as far as I could see, agreed with this description 

 exactly. Neither the back, rump, nor crown showed any black ; 

 indeed they all looked pale grey, though the crown, in some 

 positions, showed rather darker than the back — an effect, no 

 doubt, produced by the blackish mottlings and the dark lines at 

 the sides of the crown. A female Pied Wagtail at this time of 

 year would be sooty grey, mottled with black on the back, and 

 would have had a coal-black cap and nape, and black upper tail- 

 coverts. This last mark is, I think, the best way of distinguishing 

 a male White from a grey-backed Pied Wagtail when both are in 

 winter dress. We watched our mixed pair for a considerable 



