Budytes leucostriatus Homeyer, Jour. für Orn. (1878), 128;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 101.
Motacilia flava Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1885), 10,
516, pl. 6, figs. 3 to 6 (part); Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 237
(migration).
Du-uad, Batan.
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.