124 WHITE WAGTAIL. 



moreover it appears that there is a regular spring-migration through 

 Coll, Tiree, and some of the Outer Hebrides. Saxby says that he 

 obtained the White ^^'agtail in Shetland in May and June. In Ireland 

 it is as yet little known ; Mr. R. Warren shot one in co. Mayo on 

 April 25th 1 85 1, and another on April 29th 1893, while Mr. 

 Barrington has a specimen obtained on Achill Island in May 1894. 



The White Wagtail is a regular visitor to the Faeroes and Iceland, 

 wandering to the Island of Jan Mayen and the south of Greenland. 

 It is found over the whole of Europe and of Northern Asia ; the 

 Siberian birds, which are of a purer grey on the upper parts, wintering 

 in India and Burma ; while the ordinary form occurs in Asia Minor, 

 Palestine and Northern Africa in summer and winter, visiting 

 Madeira, the Canaries and Senegambia on the west, and Zanzibar 

 on the east, in the latter season. It is one of the earliest species 

 to return to those northern summer-quarters from which cold and 

 want of food have forced it to migrate at the end of autumn ; the 

 males arriving about a week before the females. 



The sites for the nest are similar to those chosen by the former 

 species ; but the White Wagtail has further been known to breed 

 in the burrow of a Sand-Martin, and also to make its nest in 

 an open place in the middle of a strawberry-bed. The 5-7 eggs 

 are sometimes of a rather bluer grey, with bolder ashy markings, 

 than those of the Pied Wagtail ; but frequently they cannot be 

 distinguished, and the average measurements are identical. In 

 general habits, food and haunts, the ^^'hite Wagtail hardly differs 

 from our indigenous bird ; I have seen flocks whitening the furrows 

 in Spain and the south of France, as Mr. Gurney has in Algeria. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the forehead and the 

 sides of the head and neck white ; crown and nape black ; back 

 and rump ash-grey ; upper wing- and median coverts tipped with 

 white ; quills blackish, the long inner secondaries edged outside 

 with white ; tail-feathers black, except the two outer pairs which 

 are mainly white ; chin, throat, and breast black ; abdomen Avhite ; 

 flanks grey; bill, legs and feet black. Length 7-5 in. ; wing 3-5 in. 

 The female has a shorter tail ; her colours are less pure, and the 

 black portions are more restricted. After the autumn moult the 

 chin and throat are white, and the black is reduced to a crescentic 

 band. In the young the white forehead, cheeks and throat are 

 tinged with yellow, and the head and mantle are olive-grey, but 

 males soon show white on the forehead and black on the throat. 

 Long before the following spring the olive tint has disappeared, 

 and the young have a light appearance. 



