says Yarrell, “ was obtained in Oct. 1834, on Walton Cliffs,

near Colchester, by Mr. Henry Doubleday; two birds were together, and his Se i ae to se
by observing a pair so late in the season, and so long after our common tl agtal eaves ne oe ry.

instances of its occurrence, near London, in Suffolk, in Northumberland, and
aware that more than three examples have been actually
ngham in May 1842, a second at Yarmouth

“The first British specimen of this bird,”

Yarrell enumerates other
near Edinburgh; Mr. Stevenson states that he is not
been killed in Norfolk—a male near Sherri
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 Wagtails is extremely probable, from the fact of its having been met with

at Lowestoft in Suffolk, on more than one occasion Co

identified as having

nsorting with the more common species. The late

Mr. Thirtle, a bird-presever of that town, ‘na communication to Mr. Gurney in Teoe, 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 oe 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 J killed one.
These four were all males, besides which I shot on the 26th two females.’ Messrs. Gurney and Fisher state
that a nest containg 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 the 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, with 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, MMJenyanthes
trifoliata, Linn.