- Motacilla indica Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, 962.
- Limonidromus indicus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10, 532; Oates, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1890), 2, 300, fig. 82 (head).
- Limondromus indicus McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 101 (error).
Balabac (Everett); Calayan (McGregor). Eastern Siberia, northern China, Indian Peninsula; in winter to Ceylon, Andaman Islands, Burmese countries, Cochin China, Malay Peninsula, and Java.
Adult (sexes similar).—Above olive-brown; tail-coverts blackish brown; line from base of bill over eyes to nape whitish; line through eye brown; cheeks and ear-coverts whitish; under parts white, breast tinged with yellow; a broad crescentic band across chest black; behind this indications of another band which is broken in the middle; sides, flanks, and thighs washed with drab-gray; wing-feathers mostly blackish brown, their tips olive-gray; lesser and median coverts with wide yellowish white tips, forming two bars; outer webs of primaries and secondaries with yellowish white spots, forming two shorter bars; two outer pairs of rectrices extensively white; next pair tipped with white; central pair olive-gray; the others blackish brown.
The measurements of the male, as given by Sharpe and changed to millimeters, follow: Length, 168; wing, 79; tail, 72; culmen, 14; tarsus, 22. A female from Calayan Island measures: Wing, 78; tail, 71; culmen from base, 15; tarsus, 22.
The forest wagtail is the rarest representative of its family in the Philippines, only two specimens having been taken here. It may be recognized at once by the two white wing-bars.
Genus ANTHUS Bechstein, 1807.
Tail shorter than the tertials; hind-toe usually shorter than its claw. Plumage various shades of brown, streaked and spotted with black and dark brown, never extensively yellow, black, nor pure white.
Species.
- a1. Hind toe and its claw about equal in length; upper plumage washed with olivaceous, the dark shaft-streaks poorly defined; breast and sides heavily spotted and streaked with blackish brown. hodgsoni (p. [669])
- a2. Hind toe decidedly shorter than
its claw; upper parts with heavy streaks of blackish brown, the margins
of the feathers various shades of buff, ocherous, and rusty brown, but
not washed with olivaceous.
- b1. Dark streaks of under parts few and narrow; sides of body uniform in color or with obsolete dusky streaks.
- b2. Dark streaks of under parts
numerous and heavy on breast, and extending over sides of abdomen and
breast.
- c1. Dark streaks on breast broader and more numerous; some of the interscapulars with whitish margins forming a conspicuous light streak on each side of back. gustavi (p. [672])
- c2. Dark streaks on breast, in the adult at least, narrower and less numerous; upper parts less boldly streaked, and the light edges of interscapulars less conspicuous; chin and throat buff in the young, vinaceous-cinnamon or dark ochraceous in the adult cervinus (p. [673])