828. Motacilla ocularis.
The Streak-eyed Wagtail.
Motacilla ocularis, Swinh. Ibis, 1860, p. 55 ; id. P Z. S. 1870, p. 129; 1871, p. 364 ; Hume & Dav. S. F. vi, p. 518; Hume, Cat. no. 591 quat.; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 315; Oates, B. B. i, p. 158; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. x, p. 471, pl. iv, figs. 5, 6.
Coloration. In normal full summer plumage the forehead, anterior part of crown, a broad supercilium, cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of the neck white; remainder of crown and nape, a streak from the lores through the eye and over the ear-coverts, chin, throat, and upper breast black ; remainder of lower plumage white shaded with grey on the flanks; upper plumage grey, turning to black on the upper tail-coverts; lesser wing-coverts grey; median coverts dark brown broadly tipped with white; greater coverts with the outer webs and a considerable portion of the inner white ; quills dark brown edged with white, the later secondaries very broadly so; the two outer pairs of tail-feathers nearly entirely white, the others black.
In normal winter plumage the chin and throat are white, and the black on the breast is reduced to a narrow crescent extending laterally along the sides of the throat.
Young birds resemble the adults in winter plumage, but the whole forehead and crown are grey like the back and the white parts, especially of the head, are suffused with yellow. The eye-streak is less distinct and brown.
Bill black, plumbeous at the base; iris brown ; legs and claws black.
Length about 8 ; tail 3.8 ; wing 3.7 ; tarsus .95; bill from gape .8 ; the dimensions of this species vary much.
Distribution. A winter visitor to the greater portion of Pegu and Tenasserim, where this species is abundant. It has been obtained at Dibrughar in Assam, in Manipur, and in Nepal, and may therefore be expected to occur throughout the whole eastern half of the Empire. This Wagtail has a very wide range, extending to China and Eastern Siberia and being occasionally observed in North America.
M. lugens, from China and N.E. Asia, resembles M. ocularis, but has the back black in summer and the wings with an immense amount of white on them. The note of this species is a prolonged " Pooh."