WHITE WAGTAIL 5 



for the rather vague statement in a footnote "said to breed on east 

 coast (Schi0ler)." The Godhavn record is based on the inclusion of 

 Motadlla alba in a list of birds obtained at that place in August 1857 

 by Dr. David Wall^er in the Ibis, 1860, p. 166, but this was an error, 

 as Professor Newton himself subsequently showed ( YaiTell's "British 

 Birds," ed. 4, vol. 1, 1874, p. 549) , so that the record should be deleted. 



Apart from its visits to Greenland the white wagtail is entitled to 

 a place on the American list on the ground of an occurrence near Fort 

 Chimo, northern Ungava, in August 1883. With regard to this Lucien 

 M. Turner (1885) wrote that four individuals were seen by Alex. 

 Brown and James Lyall, of the Hudson's Bay Co., on August 29, 1883, 

 at Hunting Bay, 4 miles south of Fort Chimo. He added that they 

 described the birds accurately, stating that they were the two parents 

 and two young of the year and that he placed the fullest reliance on 

 their assertion. 



The white wagtail, or its British representative, the pied wagtail 

 {M. aXba yarrellii) , is one of the birds which an America,!! ornithologist 

 visiting Europe is almost sure to see, even if he has little leisure for 

 bird observation, for it is ini!ch associated with buildings and inhab- 

 ited places, though in no way confined to such. About farms and 

 villages its liking for i!esting in sheds and outbuildi!!gs or in crannies 

 in walls attracts it into associatio!! with man, a!!d it i!iay be !!iet with 

 evei! in towiis, in the i!!ore residential districts where some gardens 

 and ope!! ground are available. Amo!!g European small birds it is 

 one of the species for which it is !nost difficult to define any clear-cut 

 habitat or "biotope," and so far as one cai! be defined at all it must be 

 partly in negative teri!:is. It is found in a variety of more or less 

 open country, especially, as already noted, about far!!is, buildii!gs, 

 ai!d cultivatio!!, and preferably, though by no means necessarily, iiear 

 ponds, streai!is, or other water. Large closely built-i!p areas, large 

 uninhabited tracts of moor or marshland and the like, and high ele- 

 vatio!!S in mou!!tains are generally avoided. The sa!ne is true of 

 closely wooded country, but here comparatively limited clearings or 

 opei! ground along the banks of rivers and streams will si!ffice to 

 attract it. l!i the high noi-th of Europe it is found mainly near 

 the coast, while in Iceland, according to Haiitzsch (1905), it prefers 

 the lower-lying regions especially near standing or rui!!!i!ig waters 

 and the vicinity of the sea, and displays the sa!!!e attachment to farm- 

 steads, villages, and inhabited places that it does on the !i!ainland 

 of Europe. It is probable that the relatively frequent records of 

 its occurrence at Ang!nagsalik are not solely due to the !i!uch more 

 regular observatioi! there as compared with other parts of the east 

 coast of Greenland, but again to this liking for the haunts of i!!ai! — 

 a liking, it should be added, which, at any rate in the breedii!g season, 



