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Show 1870.] MR. R. SWI.VHOE ON CHINESE WAGTAILS. 129 the Chinese province of Szechuen, beyond the town of Ta-tsien-loo, through which runs one of the great routes to Lhassa. According to information received from Mr. Stone, it seemed probable that the collections of bird-skins received in Paris, which contained the new Impeyan (Lophophorus Vhuysi), the new Itha-ginis (I. geoffroyi*), and the new Crossoptilon (C. drouyniif), had been also made in the same district, which would thus appear to be a country of no ordinary interest as regards its Phasianidee. The following papers were read :- 1. On the Pied Wagtails of China. By R O B E R T S W I N H O E , F.Z.S.-Part II. At the last Meeting of the Society a paper of mine was read on the Pied Wagtails of China (see anted, p. 120). In that I confined my attention to the Motacillce with white faces and black backs. In the present notice I wish to make the list complete by adding the other species of the group that I have met with in that empire. 4. MOTACILLA FRONTATA, sp. nov. The only specimen of this was a male procured in Amoy on the 30th November, 1866. I reported the occurrence in m y "Notes on Amoy Ornithology" (Ibis, 1867, p. 390). It is a small species, in form more nearly related to M. ocularis, mihi, than to M. felix, mihi, but wants the black eye-streak of the former. Length about 7 inches; wing 3*4 ; tail 3*5 ; bill *45, short and slender; tarse *83, with small feet and claws. Wing blacker than in M. felix, with the winglet and primaries only slightly edged with white. Tail similar. The upper parts are becoming black. The crown and nape black ; forehead also black, the bases of the feathers white. The nuchal black advances to the ear-coverts, and a broad crescent of the same marks the breast. What the full nuptial plumage would be, it is not easy to guess; but I fancy the whole face and neck would be black, leaving only the eyebrow and throat white. Its greatest peculiarity is in the black forehead, which characterizes M. lugubris, Pall., of Western Siberia, and M. maderaspatana of Bengal, but is not possessed by any of the others of our Chinese Wagtails. I was at first inclined to think that this bird might be a cross between M. ocularis and M. felix (see Ibis, I. c.); but the black forehead prevents this supposition. I am now of opiuion that it is a good species, with a habitat of its own, but, like most of the Pied Wagtails, that it moves about in winter, and has thus strayed to Amoy. 5. MOTACILLA OCULARIS, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 17. This species with a grey back I have from various localities from * Verreaux, Bull. Soc. Acclim. Paris, 1867, p. 709. t Verreaux, Nouv. Arch. d. Mus. iv. Bull. p. 85, pl. 3. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1870, No. IX. |
