THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Immature male. Head dark grey, very slightly tinged with olive, hack dark olive; rump 
olive, washed with grey ; innermost secondaries blackish-brown; primaries and outer 
secondaries brownish-ash, slightly margined on the outer web with whitish and 
on the inner web with whitish-grey: two outer pairs of tail-feathers pure white, 
wdth a wedge-shaped margin of blackish-brown on the inner web towards the base; 
remainder of the tail blackish-brown; a narrow white eyebrow; chin white; throat 
and the whole of the under-parts yellow, mixed with a few white feathers; sides 
of the chest and sides of the body greenish-olive. Eyes brown, bill and feet 
blackish. Figured. Collected at Port Blair in January, 1898. 
Immature female. Head brownish-olive ; back of the neck and rest of the upper-surface 
dark olive, slightly washed with yellowish-olive on the scapulars and middle of 
the back ; secondaries blackish-browm, margined on the outer web with yellowish- 
white ; primaries greyish-ash, blackish towards the tips and very shghtly margined 
at the extreme tip with white ; a narrow yellowish-white supercilium; sides of the 
face brownish-oUve ; throat soiled white ; chest browTUsh-buff with an indistinct 
narrow band; remainder of the under-parts white, tinged with yellow, especially 
on the sides and flanks. Collected at Palawan in 1887. 
Nestling. “ Down buff, fairly long and plentiful; distribution, outer and inner supra 
orbital, occipital, spinal, humeral and ulnar. Mouth, inside orange, two brown 
spots at base of tongue; externally gape-flanges pale yellow.” (“Practical 
Handbook.”) 
Eggs. “ Five to six or seven, so finely speckled with ochreous as to be almost uniform, 
but sometimes with distinct mottling and generally a dark hair-streak. 18'7 by 
13'9 mm.” {ib.) 
Nest. “ Generally well concealed. Built of bents and roots, sometimes moss in foundation, 
with thick lining of hair.” (ib.) 
Breeding-season. May to June or July (Europe). 
This bird was exhibited by North at the Ordinary Monthly Meeting of 
the Linnean Society of New South Wales, held on Wednesday, November 29th, 
1905, when he recorded: “It was obtained on the 10th June, 1905, at Bimbi, 
on the Dawson River, Queensland, by the well knotvn collector hlr. H. G. 
Barnard. The addition of the Genus Motacilla to the Australian avifauna is 
of considerable interest. It is somewhat remarkable, however, that this 
single representative is not allied to M. flava, whose range extends to Java and 
Timor, but to species of more restricted habitats. The specimen under 
consideration is an adult male in perfect plumage. It has a well pronounced 
white superciliary stripe, as is sho^vn m Dr. R. B. Sharpe’s fig. 6 of the head 
of M. cinerei capilla {Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. X., pi. vii), but the throat is 
yellow, not white; the lores and feathers below the eye are black, and a 
blackish wash extends over the anterior portion of the ear-coverts, and the 
chin is white. On the mider-parts it resembles fig. 1 on the same plate, M. 
borealis, in having the tliroat yelloAv, and a blackish narrow band across the 
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