CALOBATES SULPHUREA.
Grey Wagtail.

Motacilla boarula, Penn. Brit. Zool., vol. i. p. 492.

melanops, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., tom. i. p. 500.

cmerea, Leach. Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 22.
sulphurea, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iii. p. 459.

montium, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 345.

Budytes boarula, Eyton, Hist. of Rarer Brit. Birds, Pela:

Calobates sulphurea, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 33.

Pallenura sulphurea et javensis, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., tom. i. p. 250.

 

Extreme 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 bill of the pied Moracille,
nor the bright-yellow colouring of the Budytes. In colour it differs from the members 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 Motacille 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 be entitled to rank as a separate genus ; and I consider Professor Kaup was justified in proposing
a generic name for it, that of Calobates, 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 account 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 flaoa 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 JZ. 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 so thickly peopled with Europeans must often cause a pang of regret to
those who look to surrounding objects in their newly adopted 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-throated 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 face 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