288 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



To the Editor of The Analyst. 

 Sir, 



In answer to a query by a coi*respondentj (vol. ii., p. 426), I 

 should be inclined to think that he is right, when he supposes the 

 first-mentioned bird to be the Red Lark, ( Alauda rubra). With 

 the most diligent search, I have never been able to find this bird on 

 the borders of Staffordshire, &c., and the species is affirmed, by 

 some authors, to be merely a variety of the Sky Lark, (Alauda ar- 

 vensis, Lin. ; A. vulgaris, of Willughby.) This point must be left 

 to future investigation: and I must here express my regret, that 

 your correspondent did not take some means to secure the birds, 

 their nest, and eggs. He might thus^ perhaps, have settled a very 

 interesting question in ornithology. 



The second bird is, undoubtedly, the Yellow Wagtail, (Motacilla 

 Jiava, Willughby.) Your correspondent thinks that the bird he 

 describes is in the " Lark family :" but there is no such family in 

 ornithology. The Lark genus, {Alauda,) is in the Finch family, 

 (Frifigillidce,) and the Wagtail genus, (Motacillaj) is in the War- 

 bler family, ( Sylviadae.) He, also, says, that it is much smaller 

 than the Yellow Wagtail ; but, by Yellow Wagtail, I suppose he 

 means the Gray Wagtail, (Motacilla cinerea, Aldrovand,) which, 

 when in its best plumage, is chiefly yellow. If I am correct in this 

 supposition, his describing the tail of the newly-observed bird to be 

 much " shorter than that of the Yellow (Gray) Wagtail" is 

 accounted for ; the real Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla jiava* Wil- 

 lughby) having a very short tail, compared with the Pied Wagtail 

 (Motacilla maculosa, W. / M. alba, of Willughby) or the Gray 

 Wagtail. Another circumstance confirms me in the supposition 

 that this bird is the Yellow Wagtail ; it is described as frequenting 

 fields and shunning the water. On this account, the Yellow Wag- 

 tail is frequently called the Field Wagtail and the Oatear Wag- 

 tail, and the French call it " Bergeronnette printaniere." Bergeron- 

 nette is, literally, cattle attender. The true Wagtails are called 

 Hochequeue. On account of its habits, the length of its hind claw, 

 and the shortness of its tail, this bird has been separated from the 

 other Wagtails, (Motacilla,) under the name Budytes. It tlius 

 forms a link between the Wagtails and the Pipits, {Anthus.) 

 Should your correspondent wish to obtain information on any British 

 Bird, I should advise him to procure IMu die's Feathered Tribes, in 

 which he will find full and copious notices of our featherd guests 

 detailed in a remarkably fascinating style ; and it is indeed, as 

 Loudon remarks, indispensable to every studier and every lover of 

 the Birds of Britain. S. D. W. 



• The names Motacilla alba, M. flava, and many others, were not, as is 

 generally represented, given by Linnaeus ; but by the illustrious Willughby, 

 who died 1672. 



