PIED WAGTAIL. I03 



but in the Pied this is usually, though not invariably, sharply 

 angled into the white of the neck, and the breast band joins 

 with the black on the shoulders ; in the White the bib is more 

 rounded and the shoulders grey. Beneath both are white, but 

 the flanks of the Pied are sooty, of the White pale grey. The 

 bill, legs and feet are black ; the irides dark brown. The 

 females have a shorter tail and less black on the head and 

 breast. In the Pied the back is grey, though not so pure as 

 that of a male White, and is indistinctly streaked ; the grey of 

 the White is duller than that of her mate. When flying the 

 female Pied looks darker than the more uniform grey-backed 

 White. An important point, missed by most authorities, is 

 that the black on the crown of female Whites varies greatly in 

 extent, and in many birds, perhaps in the second summer, is 

 absent, even in spring. After the autumn moult Pieds closely 

 resemble Whites by becoming greyer on the back and losing 

 the black chin and throat, leaving only a crescentic band of 

 black on the breast. At all seasons, however, the rump of the 

 Pied is black, or very dark indeed, and of the White grey. The 

 young in both (Plate 43) have the face suffused with yellow 

 and the wings browner ; the grey is less pure than in adults, 

 but in distribution of colour they resemble females. Length, 

 7*5 ins. Wing, 3*6 ins. Tarsus, '9 in. 



Pied Wagtail. Motacilla lugnbiis Temm. 



The Pied or Water Wagtail (Plate 43) is distinctly a British 

 bird, occurring otherwise as a breeding species in those parts 

 of the Continent which are nearest to our islands. Numbers 

 of our birds remain throughout the winter, but the majority 

 migrate in autumn, though considerable flocks go no further 

 than our southern counties. In the Shetlands it is a bird of 

 passage, immigrants arriving from southern Scandinavia and 



