LIMONIDROMUS INDICUS.
Variegated Wagtail.

Motacilla indica, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 962.—Lath. Gen. Hist
Can. of Birds, vol. i. p. 203.—Layard in oe ond dene vale ee
Nemoricola indica, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc, Beng., vol. xvi. p. 429.—Id. Cat. of Birds cae ree - a
p. 136.—Id. Fam. Motacillide, p. 4.—Jerd. in Madras Journ. of need oe as

Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 251.—-Horsf. and Moore, Cat. of |
p- 353.

Motacilla variegata, Vieill. Ency. Méth., Orn., p. 408.—Jerd. in Madras
Nget Rahat of the Arracanese (Blyth).

Gomarita (“‘ Dungspreader ”’), Ceylon, Layard.

Rode- Rode, Malay (Blyth).

vole yvinep 334.—Gray and Mitch.
Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist..

sonap.
See E :
sirds in Mus. East Ind. Comp., vol. i.

Journ. of Lit. and Sci., vol. xi. p. 10.

 

 

 

 

 

Ir has always appeared to me that a close affinity exists between the Yellow Wace
: 5

tails, forming the genus
nine i z e es pen : . . ° . :
Budytes, and the Titlarks, genus 4nthus; and this impression is strengthened

by the existence of the
bird forming the subject of the present memoir, the affinity of which, it must however be admitted, leans to
the side of Budytes rather than to that of Anthus. I have been constrained to propose a new generic name
for this singular little bird, that of Memoricola (assigned to it by Mr. Blyth) having been previously employed
by Mr. Hodgson for a very different group of birds.

Of this form only one species has yet been discovered. That it ranges rather widely over India and the
islands, is evident from the following notes by Mr. Blyth and Mr. Layard. Mr. Blyth states that the sexes
are alike in colouring, in which respect it offers an alliance to the Pipits, and differs from the Yellow
Wagtails.

‘This species,” says Mr. Blyth, ‘appears to be common along the whole eastern coast of the Bay of
Bengal, from Arakan to the Malayan Peninsula and also Sumatra, where it was observed by the late

°
Pe

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. In Lower Bengal it is not rare; but it would seem to be scarce in the

\
a

«
ey

re |

LIS

Se *

Peninsula of India, where Mr. Jerdon had never personally met with it at the time he wrote his excellent and
useful Catalogue of the birds of that part of the country. In the vicinity of Calcutta I have procured it at
all seasons: it inhabits groves and gardens, mango-topes, and the neighbourhood of bambo-clumps, feeding
on the ground, and perching much like the Tree Pipits. I do not remember to have seen it from the
Himalayas, nor from any part of the Upper Provinces of Hindustan; and Iam not aware that it has any

ca

proper song.”

“In Ceylon,” says Mr. Layard, “this elegant little bird is met with in shady places where cattle have
been. It scratches among the ordure, in search of the larvee of insects; hence its native name. It is
migratory in its habits.”

The following is Mr. Blyth’s description of this species :—

“ Above, greenish olive-brown ; below, white or yellowish white, tinged with brown au the flanks ; a whitish
supercilium, and a black gorget across the upper part of the breast, giving out a mesial black line below ; a
second and imperfect black gorget on the lower part of the breast, united laterally upwards with the first,
middle so as to meet the mesial line given off by the first; wings bl
formed by the tips of the coverts, a third at the base of the primaries,
along the edge of the longest tertiary ; medial

‘ : ackish,
and in front not continued to the .

marked with two broad whitish bands

and a fourth near the tips of the secondaries and continued

tail-feathers brown, the next dusky, the outermost white, with generally a ae | Se
; : ° i - web, < >» penultimate with white only on its termina

base extending nearly half the length of the inner web, and the |

half; bill dusky above, the lower mandible whitish ; legs whitish,

darker.

“« Sexes alike, and no seasonal difference of colouring.

margin and black

tinged with purplish brown ; the toes

The figures are of the natural size.