CALOBATES SULPHUREA. 
Grey Wag* tail. 
Motacilla boanila, Penn. Brit. Zool., vol, i. p. 492. 
melanops, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., tom. i. p. 500. 
cxnerea, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 22, 
sidphurea, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl, tom. iii. p. 459. 
montium, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 345. 
Budytes hoarula, Eyton, Hist, of Rarer Brit. Birds, p. 15. 
Calohates sulphurea, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 33. 
Pallenura sulphurea et javensis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 250. 
Extremf elegance of form, gracefulness of action, and a peaceful disposition combine to render this species 
of Wagtail a favourite with every one who has bestowed a moment’s thought upon the objects surrounding 
him in our islands. It has neither the comparatively coarse feet nor the strong hill of the pied Motacillce, 
nor the bright-yellow colouring of the Budytes. In colour it differs from the memhers of both those 
genera, and also in its more delicately formed bill, in its smaller legs, in its shorter hind claw, and in 
the possession of a far more ample tail. Like the Motacillce it is subject to a seasonal change — a change 
confined to the throat, which becomes black in summer and forms a conspicuously distinguishing feature of 
the bird at that season. The differences indicated above have induced ornithologists to consider the Grey 
Wagtail to he entitled to rank as a separate genus ; and I consider Professor Kaup was justified in proposing 
a generic name for it, that of Calohates, which I have therefore adopted. The wide area over which the bird 
ranges, also, favours the idea of its being a very distinct form from the other Wagtails, most, if not all, of 
which are very limited in the extent of their range. The ornithologist who has collected generally, or 
studied the birds of the world, instead of a single country, will have learned that it not only inhabits 
the British islands, from the Highlands of Scotland to the Land’s End, but is equally numerous in 
all parts of Europe, from north to south, and is even found beyond the Mediterranean and Black Sea. 
He will have noticed examples in every collection from India, in whatever part of that country it may 
have been found, and have remarked that it also occurs in Malasia, Java, China, and in Japan. 
Specimens from all these countries are before me while writing my aceount of the species. At this 
point, however, I naturally ask myself. Is this the extent of the bird’s range over the globe ? Is it found 
in Australia or any of the Polynesian Islands ? and my experience answers, No, we have no evidence 
that it is. Does it form a part of the avifauna of the American continent, either on its eastern side, which 
opposes Europe, or on the north-western, which is contiguous to China and Japan ? This I again answer 
in the negative. Why it should not, I am unable to say, any more than I can tell my readers 
why the Budytes flam is common at Boulogne and Calais and rarely, if ever, found at Folkestone or 
Dover — or why the Motacilla Yarrelli should be confined to the British Islands, while the M. alba of the 
Continent is almost excluded. These are some of the inexplicable laws of nature which we shall probably 
never understand. North America, like Europe, has its rocky trout-streams and gurgling rills of water, 
accompanied by all the conditions favourable to the salmon, the trout, and the char, and other physical 
features precisely the same as those in which the Grey Wagtail loves to dwell ; yet neither that species nor 
any member of its family has yet been seen in any part of the New World. The absence of these beautiful 
tripping birds from a country now so thickly peopled with Europeans must often cause a pang of regret to 
those who look to surrounding objects in their newly adoj)ted homes. But the distribution of our Grey 
Wagtail need not be further dwelt upon, except as regards our immediate home — the British Islands. With 
us in the south the bird is much less frequently seen in its summer black-tbroated garb than in the months 
of winter, when the throat is greyish-white, and the whole under-surface more uniform. In summer it is 
away breeding in the lake-districts of England, the Grampians and other parts of the Highlands, the rugged 
portion of Derbyshire, the gullies formed by the high tors of Devon and Cornwall ; rarely is it found else- 
where at this season. But as there is usually an exception to every rule, I may mention that a few pairs 
sometimes remain in the neighbourhood of London and breed on the banks of our trout-streams, as it is 
wont to do in the localities above mentioned. In one lovely valley in Buckinghamshire, through which runs 
the river Chess, I have for many years seen this bird breeding ; and one of the greatest pleasures I ever 
experienced was the meeting of my favourite face to faee each succeeding summer, when the Duke of 
Bedford kindly favoured me with a day’s fly-fishing at Chenies. These little birds generally occupied the 
same site for their nest — a hole in a wall, occasioned by the removal or falling out of the end of a brick in 
