of these grey and black-headed Wagtails, for which I must refer my readers to his valuable ‘ Iconografía
della Fauna Italica/
On reference to my MSS. I find the following note respecting this bird as observed by me in Norway,
written while the matter was fresh in my memory. “ From a careful examination of several specimens
obtained on the Dovre-fjeld and in its neighbourhood, I am inclined to regard Budytes cinereocapilla and
B. nigricapilla, Bonap. ( J / . melanocephala, Savi., nec Lichtenstein) as one and the same species. Males
killed on approaching the Dovre-fjeld had dark grey beads, while those obtained near Jerkin had jet-black
crowns. The dark-grey-headed birds had scarcely a trace of the stripe through the eye; the females, on the
contrary, had the head olive-grey, a conspicuous stripe through the eye, and an indistinct mark of black on
th e chest. I believe every gradation of colour from the grey to the black head is to be found on the Dovre-
fjeld, where the bird may be seen in all its glory from the middle of June to the middle of July on all
the hill-sides to about or even above the line of vegetation. The crowns of those killed were quite black;
they had no stripe through the eye; upper part of the throat beneath the bill white; the remainder of the
under surface rich deep yellow, with a conspicuous patch of black on the chest; their hacks were fine green,
their hills black, their feet brownish black, and their eyes black. They were fine sprightly birds, and
uttered notes quite different from those of the Yellow Wagtail of England.” '
As it is almost impossible to determine to which species the numerous notices that have appeared under
the heading of Budytes cinereo-capilla have reference, I hesitate to quote any of them, with the exception of
the following, from the pen of Lord Lilford, which, doubtless, pertains to the present bird. He states (in
i The Ibis ’ for 1860) that it “ arrives in great numbers in Gorfu about the middle of April, at which
season it is to be found in small flocks in all the low meadows and maize-ficlds of the island. I never
could find a nest of this species, though I have observed a few pairs during the whole summer.”
In conclusion, I may remark that the colouring and markings of the head of the male occasionally
present slight differences, some specimens having the crown, lores, and ear-coverts black, others uniform
dark sooty grey; and in others, again, the grey is broken by a faint white stripe above the ear-coverts, as
seen in the Penzance example.
I must not omit to acknowledge the persevering kindness of Dr. Leith Adams, than whom no one of my
friends rendered me more valuable assistance towards the illustration of these Wagtails. During his
sojourn in Malta he collected for me a very large series, obtained during their passage from Africa
to Europe in the spring, and on their return in autumn, at which latter season the young either
accompanied the adults or followed them after a short interval. No examples of either the western Budytes
Rayi or the eastern B . melanocephala were found among the birds I had the pleasure of receiving from
Dr. Adams, the only species being B . cinereocapilla and B .flaca.
The upper figure in the accompanying Plate represents the Penzance specimen; the two lower ones
are from male and female examples shot by myself on the Dovre-fjeld, in Norway, on the 4th of July, 1856.