176 Family MoTACiLLiDyE. 



Fam ily— CER THUD. E. 



The Wall-Creeper. 



TichodrovHx munuia, Lixx. 



THE claim of this species to be called British is very slight : one example 

 having beeu shot in Norfolk and recorded in a letter to White, uf Selbome, 

 in 1792; and a second in Lancashire, in 1872, mentioned b}- JMr. F. S. 

 Mitchell. A third specimen, obtained in Sussex, has recently been brought to 

 light by Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield. 



FAMILY MOTACILLID^. 



THE Wagtails, or "Dish-washers" and "Whip-jacks" as the peasants call 

 them, are the most graceful of all our British birds ; they are characterized 

 b}' their long slender bills, legs, and tails ; by the minuteness of the tenth 

 primar_v or remicle in the wing ; the tarsus scaled in front, but not behind. Tlie 

 Pipits are nearly allied to the above, but have somewhat shorter tails in proportion 

 to their wings, the feathers of the tail also forming a slight fork at the extremit}'. 

 The Motacillid(V pass through a complete moult in the autumn, like other 

 Passeres ; but if, as has been stated, they moult again in the spring, I can onl}- 

 say that the species which I have kept in cage and aviar}-, must have swallowed 

 the feathers which they shed (which is improbable to say tlie least of it) : the 

 change into the breeding plumage is very gradual, the colour growing in the 

 feathers themselves. The supposed moulting of many birds in spring, seems to 

 be mysteriousl}- dispensed with in favour of a change of colour, as soon as they 



