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The Southern Motacilla
MOTACILLA AUSTRALIS
M. cinera, subtus flava.
N.B. Gula fere albida.
Ash-coloured Motacilla, yellow beneath.
N.B. The throat inclines a little to whitish.
It is not perhaps absolutely clear whether this bird should be referred to the genus Motacilla, or Muscicapa: the probability, however, is in favour of Motacilla.
The bird is about the size of the Motacilla flava of Linnæus, or yellow wagtail, but seems of a stouter make. The beak is of a pale colour, and the legs brown. The two middle tail-feathers have the very extremities slightly marked with white.
The genus Motacilla is extremely numerous, and it is not easy to fix upon a proper or expressive trivial name. Such names should, if possible, convey some idea either of the colour or some other circumstance relative to the manners or habits of the animal; but in new species, whose history is unknown, this is impracticable. The trivial name, therefore, of Australis may be allowable, though it cannot be regarded as sufficiently distinctive.