532 



PERCHING BIRDS 



quite to the tip of the wing. Bristles, although not large or numerous, 

 are developed at the gape of the beak ; the shank of the leg is covered 

 with smooth plates behind, but in front has to some extent shield-like 

 transverse scales, and there arc twelve tail-feathers. In addition to 

 a complete one in the autumn, these birds undergo a partial moult 

 in spring. The two sexes are alike, or nearly so, in colouring, and 

 the young differ but slightly in this respect from their parents. None 

 of them are good songsters. Wagtails are to be met with in every 

 part of the world except Australasia and the South Sea Islands, even 

 Alaska being visited by one species. Most of them breed in the 



colder zones of the north- 

 ern hemisphere and mi- 

 grate south in winter. 

 They are divisible into 

 two sections, one with pied 

 and the other with yellow 

 plumage. All wagtails 

 are fond of the neighbour- 

 hood of water. 



When in its summer 

 breeding-dress the cock 

 of the pied wagtail has 

 the front and each side of 

 the head, a patch extend- 

 ing from the latter on to 

 the side of the neck, the tips of the wing -coverts, broad margins 

 to the secondary and narrower ones to the primary quills, and the 

 two outer tail-feathers white ; the remainder of the upper-parts are 

 black, as are the throat and fore portion of the breast, white occupy- 

 ing the rest of the under -parts, with the exception of the flanks, 

 which are dark grey. The hen falls short of the cock by half-an-inch 

 in length, measuring only 7 inches, and is further distinguished by 

 having the back leaden grey streaked with black. In the winter- 

 dress the back of both sexes is uniformly grey, and the throat white 

 with a crescent -shaped black gorget, of which the tips reach the 

 ear-coverts. Young birds differ from their i)arcnts in winter-dress in 

 that the head is of the same ashy grey colour as the back, with a 

 tinge of yellow on the sides, while the upper portion of the breast is 

 mottled with greyish black. 



The present species has a somewhat restricted range, being 

 confined to western Europe in summer, where its eastern breeding- 



THE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



PIED WAGTAIL (MAI.K IN SL-MMKK). 



