Balabac (Everett); Basilan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Bohol (Everett); Cagayan Sulu (Mearns); Calayan (McGregor); Camiguin N. (McGregor); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Cebu (McGregor); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Everett, Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, McGregor); Masbate (McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns); Negros (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Platen, Whitehead, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, White); Polillo (McGregor); Sulu (Guillemard, Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka; eastern China and the Moluccas in winter.
Male in spring plumage (Manila, April, 1904).—Above olive-yellow; tail-coverts brown edged with olive-yellow; top of head and nape cinereous, the ear-coverts a little darker; lores and space under eye blackish; a wide line from nostril over eye to nape white; sides of neck and of chest olive-yellow; chin white; remainder of under parts canary-yellow, or light lemon-yellow, with some obscure dusky spots on chest, crissum palest; thighs ashy gray; wings dark seal-brown, many of the feathers edged with yellowish or buffy white; tips of greater and median coverts forming bars; two outermost pairs of rectrices nearly all white, the others seal-brown with narrow olivaceous edges. Length, 165; wing, 81; tail, 72; culmen from base, 15; tarsus, 25.
The female is duller in color; the upper parts browner and the under parts paler yellow. A female from Calayan Island measures: Wing, 74; tail, 70; culmen from base, 13; tarsus, 25.
Winter plumage.—Most of the specimens taken in the Philippines have the crown, sides of head, and upper parts dull brown, sepia to hair-brown, at times with traces of olive-yellow on the back; the long white supercilium is always present; the under parts are mostly white, chest more or less dusky and with spots or irregular patches of yellow.
“Much less common than M. melanope. Three males average: Length, 169; wing, 80; tail, 76; culmen, 17; tarsus, 25; middle toe with claw, 20.5. A female measures, length, 165; wing, 77; tail, 73; tarsus, 24; middle toe with claw, 21.5. Legs, feet, and nails dark brown to black; bill black, except base of lower mandible which is gray.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
At times I have found large flocks of this yellow wagtail in the vicinity of Manila, but it is usually less abundant than the gray wagtail.
Genus DENDRONANTHUS Blyth, 1844.[91]
The only member of this genus is not greatly different from the Motacillæ, but the tail is slightly shorter than the wing, being intermediate in length between the tertials and primaries; the claw of hind-toe is short as in Motacilla; under parts white with a black band across the chest; upper parts with an olivaceous wash; wing-feathers blackish brown; median and greater coverts tipped with white, forming two conspicuous wing-bars; primaries and secondaries with white spots on outer webs, forming two more bars. Of this genus Oates says: “The structure of the tail in this genus is peculiar, inasmuch as the middle pair of feathers is very markedly shorter than the others and of a different color.”