Stray Feathers/Volume 1/November 1872/The Wagtails of India, No. 1
The Wagtails of India, No. 1.
There is certainly vo group of birds that is more troublesome or perplexing than the wagtails, and though I cannot pretend to have solved all the diffieulties in regard to our Indian members of the group, I hope to be able to furnislı a few notes that may facilitate their ultimate solution.
In the present paper I propose to confine my remarks to the grey and black wagtails of which M. Alla, Linn, and M. Yarrelli, Gould, may be taken as types.
Setting asido Motuvillu Tludraspalara, the large size (length ou the average, 9 inches; wing, 4 inches or nearly so,) and well defined plumage of which zenders it always casy of identification, there remain fire species which have been admitted by Mr. Blyth into our Indiau Avifauna. In two of these, in their breed- ing plumage at any rate, the whole back is black, namely M. Luzoniensis, Scopoli, and H. Hodgsone, G. R. Gray; while in the other three, the backs remain at all seasons grey ; Damely M. Personala, Gould, M. Dukhunersis, Sykes, and M. Alba, Linnæus.
Besides M. Luconiensis and Hodgsoni, Mr. Gray admits a third castern species M. Japonica, Swinhec, figured by Schlegel in the Fauna Japonica, as J. Lugens,
All these three black-backed races arc somowbat larger than the grey-backed ones with which we shall have to deal hercafter, the wings in the males varying apparently from 3-7 to 3-9 in- ches, while in the same sex in Alba and Dukhunensis, they average from 3-4 to 3.6 inches, and in Personala from 3-5 to 9.7 inches, only in one specimen out of fifty extending to 3.75 inches. The bills also in the eastern black-backed races are as a role con- spicuously longer.
Mr. Sehlegel, if I understand him correctly, considers all these three easteru black-backed races to be one and the same species, and he further unites with them M. Lugubris, Pallas, (figured by Gould, birds of Europe, pl. 142,) which has a partly grey back, as one stage of the winter plumage of this same species.
In regard to Lugubris, I am not in a position to offer any useful opinion; but I have every reason to believe that Luzoniensis, Horgsoni, and Japonica are only different stages of the summer plamage of the same species. Briefly, the differences of these three forms may be thus described: in Luzoniensis, the whole of the front of the head as far back as the crown, lores, and the whole of the face, sides of the neck, chin and throat are pure white; occiput, nape, mantle, and a broad band on the breast are black; in Hodgsoni, only the front of the head, lores, orbital region, and ear-coverts, chin, and upper portion of the throat are white; the whole of the rest of the sides of the neck and throat have become unbroken black, joined into the breast band, and from the gape, a narrow black line runs below the orbital region and ear-coverts, dividing these from the white of the chin and upper throat and joining into the black of the sides of the neck; the major portion of the visible parts of the wing coverts of Luzoniensis are white, and the quills, too, are margined with white; the secondaries more broadly towards their tips; in Hodgsoni, there is even more white upon the wing.
There can, I think, be no doubt, that Hodgsoni is only a somewhat more advanced stage than Luzoniensis, and I may notice that both forms are beautifully figured in Mr. Hodgson's drawings now before me, and that he recognized their indentity, assigning to both the name of Alboiodes. When we turn to Lugens as figured by Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, the lores, the whole of the space below the eye, and the eye coverts have become black; the frontal patch only extends backwards as far as the front of the eye over which it extends as a supercilium; the white of the chin is still further contracted than in Hodgsoni, and there is, if possible, even more white on the wing than in this latter species; this is a still nearer approach to the full breeding plumage.
The full breeding plumage has never, I believe, been yet described. I have had specimens, typical of each of the three forms above described, obtained in the Himalayas, at different times of the year, between April and September; but specimens killed at the end of May and early in June, shew what the full breeding plumage is; namely the whole chin, throat, and top of the head, with the mantle, sides of the neck, and back pure velvet black; and the white, which in each preceding stage was gradually diminishing, now reduced to a somewhat narrow frontal band, continued as a superciliary stripe over the eye and backwards over the ear-coverts. If any one insists upon making a fourth species out of this full breeding stage, he may call it Superciliaris; but I do not myself doubt that one and all are stages of the same species. I should mention that in the final stage the closed wing books almost entirely white.
The well-marked black monstacliial line which has been considered the distinguishing' character of Hodgsoui is clearly merely a stage of plumage. Exactly the same chai-acteristic line is met with in Persouata, about March^ when the black of the breast begins to ei-eep up the upper part of the throat to the chin; and this moiistachial stripe shews itself again in September^ when the chin has l^ecome white and the throat has begun to exhibit snowy speckles ; in fact both in Luzoniensis, Scop., (which isj I suppose^ the name that must stand founded on pla'"je 29 of Sonnerat's Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinee) and Pei'sonata, in both of which I have shewn that the chin and throat become ultimately quite blacky it is the feathers along this so-called moustachial line which first, (as compared with those of the immediately contiguous parts) assume, and latest divest themselves of, the black tint.
In the breeding plumage the female oi I/uzoniensis differs only in its smaller size, and the somewhat browner black of the buck, somewhat as may be observed in the breeding plumage of the two sexes of Madrasjoatana.
Of the cold weather plumage of this species, I cannot speak with any great certainty, and on this point further careful observations are I think necessary. I have as yet obtained but few specimens showing the transition from the grey of the winter to the black of the summer plumage and vice versa ; but at the same time there is no doubt of the fact, and it would be very interesting to trace the changes in plumage from October to March, as I have endeavoiired to trace those from April to September. It may be that Liigtthns, as supposed by Schlegel, is a cold weather form of Luzoniensis, but the distribution of the black and white in the former species hardly looks to me compatible with this supposition.
Of the grey -backed species I may premise that I myself have never been satisfied that Dulchmensis really deserves specific separation from Alba, any more than I am satisfied that Pratincola Indica and Pratincola Uuhicola i-eqitire distinct specific appellations. The two forms so closely resemble each other, that all that I shall have to say about the one will, I believe, be equally applicable to the other. Certainly there is no constant difference in size in the two species. I have five male Alha before me from different places on the Continent, the wings of which vary from 3'4 to 3'6 inches ; and I have forty specimens of Bukhunensis about half of which are male, and in this latter sex the wings in this race also vary from 3'4 to 3'6 inches; in length of bill, tarsi, and tail, a certain amount of difference is observable amongst individuals of both races but none between the two as a body. There remain first the coloration of the back, second the amount of white on the wing. Undoubtedly, taken as a body, the backs in Alba are a darker, and those of Dukhunensis, a paler grey; and again taken as a body the coverts, secondaries, and tertiaries in Dukhanensis are much more conspicuously and broadly margined with white than in Alba. Bnt, per contrá, I have first a typical Alba absolutely identical in every respect with the European specimens. This is from Bhawulpoor, and is the only unmistakable Alba which I have yet seen in India secondly, I have several Dukhunensis with the characteristic whiter wing, the backs of which are as dark as in any Alba vera; and thirdly, others with the light backs characteristic of Dukhunensis; but with no more white on the wing than in Alba. Under these circumstances it must, I think, remain an open question whether we ought to consider Dukhunensis a dis- tinct species or merely a local race. I myself retain the name for convenience, but greatly doubt the value of the distinction, and having explained wherein the typical Alba differs from the typical Dukhunensis, shall say nothing further of Alba, but confine myself to Dukhunensis and Personala.
All my black-back wagtails have been exclusively procured in the Himalayas, from Cashmere to Sikhim. Dukhunensis and Personala on the other hand are widely distributed throughout the plains of India. My specimens of Dakhunensis are from various localities in Sindh, Jodhpoor, Bhawulpoor, Dehra Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Sirsa, Ferozepore, Rohtnek, Goorgaon, Simla, Saharun- poor, Etawah, Jhansie, Sangor, Chumparun, Saruu, and Dacca. Personata I have from Murdan, Caslinere, Lahore, Goorgaon, Simla, Kotegurh, Saharunpoor, Kumaon, and Etawah; and I have seen specimens of both I believe from almost every locality in the Punjab, the North-West Provinces, Oudh, and the Cen- tral Provinces, and of Dukhunensis from at least a dozen loca- lities in Bengal.
In full breeding plumage, these two species are very readily distinguishable. Dukhunensis then has the whole front of the head, lores, orbital region, checks, car-coverts, and a stripe down the side of the neck pure white. The posterior half of the crown, occiput, and nape, the chin, throat, and breast pure black. In Personata, on the other hand, the white is confined to a broad frontal band extending as far as the front of the eye, and stretch- ing as a narrow supercilinm backwards over the eye and part of the ear-coverts. Again in Personala, the whole visible por- tions of the wing coverts of the closed wing are pure white, whereas in Dukhunensis they are brown, broadly edged, it is true, with white, but not sufficiently so to enable the edgings to conceal entirely (as they do in Personata) , the brown portions of the feathers.
In the breeding" plumag'e the males and females of Personafa are nndistinguishable^ except that in the males the wings vary from 3 "6 to '6 1 inches, while in the females they seem to vary from 3'4' to 3*55 inches. As regards Duhhunensis, the same may be the case; but it is curious that I have no female Dickhmensis of my own collecting-, or of which the sex has been authenticated by a really careful and reliable observer, in the same full breeding plumag'e as the males. In Alba the female has always much less black upan the occiput, and the chin and throat are a duller and browner black, and the same difference somewhat exagg-erated may exist in the race we designate Luk/mnensis.
In winter, both Personata and Dtekhunensis entirely Jose in both sexes the black of the head, which is replaced in the male by a dark, in the female, by a lighter grey.
The black of the chin, throat, and breast is reduced in BuJcImnensin to a moderately broad, more or less cresceutic pectoral band, with two ill-defined broken blackish stripes running up the sides of the neck as it were from the points of the crescent, which stripes, never I think entirely disappear, though in some specimens they become neai-ly obsolete ; the broad white frontal band remains unchanged in width or nearly so in the adult male, though its color is less pure ; but in the female, it is gveatly diminished in width so as in some specimens to become almost obsolete, while in all specimens it is more or less overlaid with sordid grey
In Personata, on the other hand, the whole breast alwaifs remains, black, and though the chin and upper part of the throat are white, the lower part of the throat is still more or less speckled with black. In the perfect winter plumage of both species the amount of the black on the breast, sides of the neek, and throat at once serve to distinguish the two species, but specimens of Buhhmemis changing into winter plumage often (so far as the amount of black on the throat and breast is eoneemed) exactly resemble the perfect winter plumage of Personata, and the only ready and unfailing diagnosis of the two species is that in both sexes, and at all seasons, the ear- coverts and whole aural region are in Personata black, blackish or dark grey ; in Diokhunensis, pure white or greyish or sordid white. This marked difference coupled with the conspicuously greater amount of white on the wings of Personata as compared with those of Pukh'itnensis ought to render the separation of any specinjiens of the two species comparatively easy. I shall only add that I shall be very much obliged by the receipt of grey and black wagtails from all parts of the country, provided only that the ser, date, and locality are carefully noted for each specimen; unless the two former particulars, at any rate, are given, the specimen would be of little real use.