1082 
NOTES ON INDIAN WAGTAILS. 
BY 
Claud B. Ticehurst, M.A., M.B.O.U., M.R.C.S. 
{late Capt. R.A.M.C.) 
Having for a number of jears paid special attention to some of the Indian 
Wagtails I thought it might be of some help to others to place on record the 
lesult of my researches. That the subject is a complex one may be gathered 
from the writings of earlier authors and I may say at once that I have seldom 
tackled so difficult a subject. One may be able to determine correctly most 
of one’s cabinet specimens but to put on paper any reliable guide which enable 
others to do so is a matter of extreme difficulty. When one finds that, with say 
the Yellow-hi adbd Wagtails, one has the two sexes differing in plumage in 
winter and summer, and the birds taking two years to become fully adult one 
may bc;gin to realise the complexity of the task which confronts one. Thus 
there may be eight or ten specimens of the same species before one and not 
one alike ! and all more or less similar to eight or ten more of a closely aUied form, 
not to mention the possibility of individiml variations. 
To try and differemtiate these in their various plumages and to tell others how 
to do so has been my aim and it is mainly the very carefully collected series 
obtained by myself and Mr. Whistler which had enabled me, I hope, to evolve 
a certain amount of order out of chaos. 
I,— The Yellow- headed Wagtails. 
Motacilla c. citreola and Motacilla r.. calcarata. 
In the Fauna of British India vol. ii p. 299, it is stated that M. citreola {=cal- 
carata) can be diffen ntiated from other Wagtails by the longer tarsus. I do 
not think these two Wagtails can be confused with any other at any si asor or 
age, the broad y. Uow supercilium and more or less yvffiow on the fon head being 
sufficient distinction. Moreover the statement about the length of the tarsus 
is not correct except for calcarata which certainly has a longer tarsus, for I 
find that out of 9 adult males of melanogriseus (feldeggi F.B.I.) and out of 10 
heema, 8 of each are within the limits of measurement of the tarsus of citreola, 
viz., 23-25'5 mm. 
Summer Plumage, males. 
The. males can always bo differentiated. In the calcarata the back is black 
and the edg- s of the wing coverts tinged with y. llow, in citreola tlae back is grey 
with a black neck collar and the tidgos of the coverts white. One may find 
birds of both spici s in breeding dress which are not quite the same as adults 
and th so are most certainly birds of the previous yt^ar. In such sp :cimons 
of calcarata the black of the back is mixed with dark grey and in citreola there 
IS only a trace of the black collar and the yellow of the head is much sullied on 
the crown with dark heathers but in no state of plumage has citreola any black 
feathers on the back. 
Calcarata : Winter Plumage, males: 
Ccdcarat a is, dark T on the back than cifreoia and lacks the black collar which 
perfectly adult citreola generally shews, while the back fn quontly has blackish 
feathers intiumixed which citreola lacks. Occasionally the blackish f. athers on 
calcarata ar«; n- ar the nap-, of the neck and so do form an indistinct collar but if 
so there am generally some black feathers elsewhere on the mantle. The amount 
af b'ack in the upp>r-parts in this species varies a good deal and those with most 
ore adults and those with little or none, and whoso backs are grtiy brown and 
