BUDYTES VIEIDIS. 
619 
very rarely, Mr. Brooks says, a thin white line is present. The female has a browner head, wdth no siiperciliuni. 
It has the bill stouter than B.flava, but not so deep at the base as in B. virklis. "When the three species are laid 
side by side, the difference in the bill is at once perceptible. The Black-headed Wagtail is found in Eastern 
Europe, India, and China. 
Bistribution. — ^To the student of Ceylon ornithology it must be interesting to know that this widely-spread 
species^ inhabiting the better part of Eui’ope and Asia, and also the north of Africa, was first described from 
Ceylon, where it is only a winter visitant, from a specimen sent home by that indefatigable collector. Governor 
Loten, to Brown, who figured it in his ‘Illustrations.^ From Brownes drawing Gmclin took his description. 
It arrives in Ceylon about the 20th of September in small numbers in the young stage ; a week or two 
later a large influx, many of which are old birds, takes place, and by the 10th or 15th October the species is 
abundantly diffused through all the low country, hut is Avithal more numerous in the maritime portions than 
far inland. It is less partial to the extremely dry and arid region of the south-east than to other portions of 
the sea-hoard ; on the grass-lands surrounding the northern tanks of the interior it is plentiful. It does not 
ascend the hills, either in the centre or the south of the island, not having been recorded in any part above 
1000 feet. In the Western and Southern Provinces it commences to pass northwards about the 20th March, 
migrating chiefly in the mornings, and its numbers decrease gradually through the month of April until the 
last birds disappear about the 5th of May. This latter date is the very latest in the district of Colombo that 
I have noted ; and long ere this, as will presently be seen, it has begun to pass through some parts of Asia to 
northern regions. 
This Wagtail is also a cold-wcather visitant to India, and is spread, more or less, over the whole empire, 
extending into Burmah and southwards to Tenasserim. Thence it ranges as far as some of the Malay islands, 
as I observe that Lord Tweeddalc includes it in Mr. Buxton^s Lampoug collection (S.E. Sumatra) . It doubtless 
inhabits, during the season, the intermediate tract of country, the Malay peninsula, down which it must pass 
to reach Sumatra. In the, Andaman Islands it also takes up its quarters; but it is not so numerous as the 
allied and perhaps more widely-distributed species, B. flava. Mr. Hume only records (in his List, Str. Feath. 
1874) the procuring of two examples. It extends eastward to China, where it is, according to Swinhoe, found 
in pairs in the spring ; to this region it probably finds its way from Mongolia or from Trans-Baikal, if it ranges 
so far eastwards. AVhen Jerdon wrote his work on the Birds of India, he included the present and the other 
two species of Field -Wagtail [B. flava and B. melanocephala) under the title of B. viriclis, and said that it was 
exceedingly abundant in every part of India. Since that time, however, Messrs. Anderson, Brooks, Hume, 
and others have paid much attention to this group (which is somewhat puzzling in winter plumage) and have 
demonstrated the fact that all three species inhabit India, so that they have been heretofore confounded with one 
another. It transpires accordingly that B. flava is quite as common, if not commoner, in some parts of the 
empire than our bird. There is no reason why it should not occur in Ceylon, although it does not seem to 
have generally such a southerly range as the present. As regards various observers in India, we find that 
Dr. Fairbank records it from Ahmednaggar, and that Mr. Davidson says it is common in the Deccan. In the 
district of Furreedpore it is numerous during the cold weather. Captain Beavan writes that it is very “ abundant 
at Barrackpore in the beginning of the cold weather;” he likewise found it numerous at Umballah. Further 
south, on the east side of the peninsula, Mr. Hume records it from Sambalpur. In Central India, I under- 
stand, it is common in localities. Mr. Anderson sent it to me from Futt chgur, where he also procured its 
two allies above mentioned. In the north-west I observe that neither Captain Butler nor Mr. Hume record 
it from the Guzerat district ; but here it has, no doubt, been overlooked, as it must diverge to that part in 
migrating into India. In Sindh, it is, however, common, as also at the Sambhur Lake. In Pegu it is 
abundant, according to Mr. Oates, and it is likewise common in Tenasserim, and has occurred as high as 
3000 feet in Karennee. In Turkestan it occurs in passage, according to Severtzoff, but does not breed there. 
Dr. Finscli met with it in the valley of the Irtisch in Western Siberia; and Mr. Seebohm found it on the 
Yenesay, where it breeds as far north as 69|° N. lat., thus ranging into the Arctic circle; it arrived, he says, in 
the valley in great numbers on the 5th of June. It passes through Palestine in April on its way north, perhaps 
from Egypt or Arabia. Canon Tristram thus writes of it: — “When at Jericho, April 14th, I observed a 
large flock of Budytes cinereocapilla, evidently on their migration ; they remained but one evening, and 1 
secured several specimens, all of this form ; on the next morning the flock took its departure for the north.” 
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