MOTACILLID.t. 



123 



THE WHITE WAGTAIL. 



MoTACiLLA ALBA, Liiinseus. 



This Continental representative of the famih'ar species already 

 described was first recognized in England by the late Mr. F. Bond, 

 who found two pairs at Kingsbury Reservoir, Middlesex, in the latter 

 part of May 1841. Since that date it has occurred in a good many 

 counties of England, being not uncommon in Cornwall in spring ; 

 Mr. Haigh found it numerous in North Wales on the spring passages 

 of 1 89 1 and 1897 ; and it is said to have nested in Devon, the Isle of 

 Wight, Kent, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Huntingdon- 

 shire. Of a pair of birds obtained with their nest and young in 

 Norfolk, presented to the British Museum by Lord Walsingham, the 

 male is a White and the female is a Pied Wagtail ; Dr. Giinther has 

 informed me of a similar case of interbreeding in Suffolk ; and Mr. 

 Aplin has recorded another, with the sexes reversed, in Oxfordshire. 

 Mr. Cordeaux mentions several occurrences in Lincolnshire, in 

 spring ; competent observers have noticed the species in Notting- 

 hamshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumberland ; and on May 

 24th 18S5 I watched an adult, probably a male, by some lead-works 

 near Langley Castle in Northumberland. In Scotland the White 

 Wagtail has been observed in some of the southern counties ; while 

 pairs have been noticed near Gairloch, in Ross-shire ; Booth saw 

 several couples in April on the river bank at Inverness, and a number 

 on the island of Lewis early in May 1877, after rough weather; 



