Birds of Celebes; Motacillidae. 
537 
4 examples there, and towards the end of May, 1894, 5 examples, the last being 
a late date for a migratory species. 
An observation of singular interest connected with the winter migration of 
this Wagtail in the East is recorded by Mr. S. Bligh [d7) , who when tra- 
velling in Ceylon on 24*^ November, 1887, was attracted by seeing several Wag- 
tails (M. melanope) towards evening “on the top of a low bazaar-building (a 
native shop) ; in a few minutes the number was doubled, and by this time small 
troops of them kept passing the rest-house, and other flocks were gathering 
from all sides, till thousands had collected; Swallows (Hirundo rustica) then 
began to arrive in flocks, and all commenced sweeping round over a small 
garden of native coffee of an acre or two in extent . . . The rest-house keeper 
. . . told me that they came there all the last cold season, for the flrst time, 
to roost in the coffee. By this time a vast swarm of the two species had 
arrived and it was getting dusky. The rest-house keeper sent a boy to frighten 
up those that had settled; they went up in a cloud, and the rustling of their 
tiny wings was distinctly heard by me a hundred yards off; they rose in a 
copula-shaped mass, and were as thick as bees in a swarm; there must have 
been 30,000 or 40,000 birds on the wing at that moment, the Wagtails forming, 
as I estimated, about a third or fourth of the number. The boy was called 
away, and soon all the birds descended before it was quite dark; when settled, 
the Swallows kept up an incessant simmering chirping for some time, but I 
could not hear a Wagtail’s note at all. The sight was a wonderful one; at 
daylight the birds all departed very quickly and quietly”. 
It is of much interest to know that the birds returned to the same spot 
two years in succession , and in such numbers ; a similar case of migratory 
Collocaliae resorting for more than one year to an old shed in the Andamans 
has been described by Davison (see CoUocalia fuciphaga, p. 332). Such facts speak 
strongly for traditional (if the word can be used) migration routes. The pheno- 
menon of migration assumes a simpler aspect if it be that birds have certain 
well-known resting-places at stages in their long journey — well-known at least 
to the older travellers, which again acquired their experience from the previous 
generation. Pigeon-fanciers know that their birds cannot find their way in an 
unknown country. 
GENUS ANTHUS Bchst. 
The Pipits wear a Lark-like plumage of tawny, streaked above and more 
or less on the under parts with black or blackish. This, and their short tails 
and pale legs will serve to distinguish them from the Wagtails, to which they 
are very like structurally. The tarsus is scutellated in front, but covered with 
an entire lamina behind, which forms a means of distinguishing them from the 
Larks, in which the tarsus is scutellated behind as well as before. The Pipits 
nest on the ground, laying mottled eggs. They are found both in the Old and 
New Worlds, but in the East not further than Celebes, the Moluccas and Timor. 
Meyer & Wigleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Nov. ISth, 1897). 68 
