WHITE WAGTAIL 7 



and wings drooping or slight!}^ spread or sometimes fluttered. The 

 female may or may not respond but, according to Boase, is "generally 

 inattentive, finding interest in a passing fly or in preening, and the 

 whole business may end in a wild pursuit." He records one case, 

 however, where a female joined in a display. He states that he "gives 

 the particulars as they were noted at the time, in spite of the appear- 

 ance of an error in judging the sexes." "The bird taken to be the 

 male was facing the other when first seen and was bowing rapidly. 

 In the raised position the neck was extended to its limit and the bill 

 was held normally ; in the lower position, the neck was retracted, the 

 head being level with the back and the bill slightly uptilted. The 

 other bird, judged to be the female, so far as the plumage gave indica- 

 tion, crept or shuffled with wings and tail moderately expanded and 

 head depressed around the male, which turned so as to face her." 



In connection with coition the female is usually passive, merely 

 quivering the wings and raising the tail if responsive or, if not, some- 

 times actually dashing at and pecking the male. 



The above are some of the main types of behavior, but there is a 

 good deal of variation, the displays of wagtails, like those of a good 

 many other small passerines, being by no means stereotyped. The 

 Kev. E. Peake (1926) describes a case, observed on April 29, thus: 

 "The cock approached from ten feet or so away, bobbing his head 

 straight up and down with body flattened out. Then, when he got 

 near, he danced round with wings curved and expanded, and his tail 

 also expanded and drooping, and singing all the time. The hen with 

 tail raised and head lowered stood snapping her bill." 



Other minor variations could be added, but the foregoing will suffice. 

 The reader may perhaps be reminded that these observations refer 

 entirely to the British race, since detailed observations on the white 

 wagtail proper of continental Europe are almost entirely lacking. 

 It so happens that the only two brief observations available differ 

 slightly from any recorded for the pied wagtail, but the not incon- 

 siderable variation in the latter race has already been mentioned, and 

 it is most unlikely that there is any real or constant difference in the 

 display behavior of the two forms. One of the two observations 

 referred to was, it must be noted, made on captive birds. W. E. 

 Teschemaker (1913) in an account of white wagtails which nested in 

 an aviary writes : 



"The display is very characteristic and interesting. The female 

 crouches on the ground with quivering wings and tail, and beak raised. 

 The male standing sideways to her grovels on the ground, trailing his 

 drooping wings ; he then throws himself on that side which is farthest 

 from the hen, the wing on this (the farthest) side drooped and quiv- 

 ering, the other wing raised perpendicularly and also quivering." 



In the "Handbook of British Birds" the Eev. F. C. K. Jourdain 



