“The first British specimen of this bird,” says Yarrell, “was obtained In Oct. 1834, on Walton Cliffs, 
near Colchester, by Mr. Henry Doubleday ; two birds were together, and his attention was drawn to them 
by observing a pair so late in the season, and so long after our common Yellow M^agtail leaves this country.” 
Yarrell enumerates other instances of its occurrence, near London, in Suffolk, in Northumberland, and 
near Edinburgh ; Mr. Stevenson states that he is not aware that more than three examjdes have been actually 
identified as having been killed in Norfolk — a male near Sherringhara in May 1842, a second at Yarmouth 
in April 1851, and the third, a female, killed some years back on the Heigham River, late in the spring. 
“ That this bird, though for the most part unrecognized,” says Mr. Stevenson, “ appears from time to time 
in this country amongst our Yellow AYagtails is extremely probable, from the fact of irs having been met with 
at Lowestoft in Suffolk, on more than one occasion consorting with the more common species. The late 
Mr. Thirtle, a bird-preserver of that town, in a communication to Mr. Gurney in 1854, remarks : — “During 
the protracted dry weather from the beginning of last March to the end of April, with the wind from the 
N.E. with light sunny days, and every day for more than six weeks, there were to be seen some forty or 
fifty Yellow Wagtails running upon our Denes ; and on the 24th of April I observed a grey-headed one 
amongst them. I fetched my gun and shot it; on the 25th I killed two more, and on the 26th I killed one. 
These four were all males, besides whicb I shot on the 26th two females. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher state 
that a nest containing four eggs was taken on a heath at Herringfleet, in Suffolk, on the 16th of June 1842, 
which probably belonged to a bird of this species. The eggs closely resembled an egg of tbe Grey-headed 
Wagtail that had been taken on the Continent; and the situation of the nest and the materials of which it 
was composed, also corresponded with the descriptions given of the nest of this bird .” — Birds of Norfolk, 
vol. i. p. 164. 
On the Continent this species frequents moist meadows, the vicinity of water, and the edges of rivers. 
I must not fail to thank my valued friend Dr. A. Leith Adams for his kindness in sending me from Malta 
a very large series of specimens of this bird skinned and dissected by his own hand. Among them there is 
much variation in colour and markings, but not more than, in my opinion, would be occasioned by 
differences of age and sex. 
In the adult state the male has the head and sides of the face bluish grey; lores black; a white line 
over the eye ; upper surface and wing-coverts olive-yellow ; wing-coverts and secondaries brownish black, 
margined with very pale yellow; primaries brown; central tail-feathers brownish black, slightly fringed with 
yellow ; two outer feathers white, Avith a stripe of blackish brown on the margin of the basal portion of the 
inner web ; chin and a stripe on each side of the throat white, remainder of the under surface rich yellow ; 
bill, legs, and feet black. 
Young males are at first very much paler than the adult, have the stripe over the eye pale yellow, and the 
head olive ; as they approach maturity the grey of the head begins to appear, and the eye-stripe becomes whiter. 
In the female the general distribution of the colours is the same, but they are of a much paler tint, and 
the throat is dull white. 
The Plate represents a male and a female, of the size of life. The plant is the Buckbean, Menyanthes 
trifoUata, Linn. 
