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no j-ellow about them to speak of, as belonging to this species ; the only other 

 possibility is that they might belong to the race of the white wagtails, and that 

 would be a most unlikely circumstance in a district so far to the west of England 

 as Herefordshire. But even here it may be always worth while looking at a pied 

 wagtail to make sure that it is not a white wagtail ; and the latter may be detected 

 almost at once, even from the female pied vvagtail, by its much whiter back, and 

 the sharp line of distinction between the back and the jet-black of the head. 



2. A word or two next about the yellow wagtail, a slighter and less hardy 

 bird than the last, which i-arely or never dares to spend the winter with us, and is 

 perhaps all the more welcome when its gentle whistle is first heard on an April 

 morning, in meadows fast greening with the influence of spring showers. When 

 the pied wagtail was first distinguished by naturalists from its Continenral cousins, 

 of whom I spoke just now, it received the most unfortunate name of M. luyuhrw, 

 or the wagtail in mourning, in allusion to its black and white dress. To give such 

 a name to a wagtail (it was given by a Dutch naturalist) is to forget that feathers 

 do not make a bird any more than clothes makes a man ; and I do not think that 

 a wagtail could look melancholy even under the most painful circumstances. I am 

 glad to say that no such mi.-ifortune has happened to the yellow wagtail, the 

 sprightliest, boldest, and I might almost venture to say the happiest, of all its kind. 

 It has often been called, in Latin as in English, the yellow wagtail ; but the greater 

 number of authors have given it in a Latin form the name of the great English 

 naturalist, John Ray, the friend of the Willughby whom I mentioned just now, and 

 even in English it is now known to ornithologists as Ray's wagtail. It received this 

 honourable name some half a century ago, because it was then first discovered that 

 this bird, like the pied wagtail, is almost peculiar to England, and is quite distinct 

 from the common continental yellow wagtail. Strange to say, it has turned up again 

 since then in Central Asia in summer ; and it is known to winter in Africa, even 

 as far south as the Transvaal ; so that in spring two currents of yellow wagtails 

 must set from Africa, the one going north-east to Asia, and the other north-west 

 to England. Here is indeed one of those curious unsolved bird-mysteries which 

 make the science of ornithology more fascinating, the more our knowledge of it 

 advances. And, to add to our perplexity, we have also to face the ftict that the 

 space between these two currents is occupied by several other kinds of yellow 

 wagtails, all much alike in shape and habits, and for the most part in hue, but 

 differing just in some one point of plumage, and mixing themselves up together 

 in the most delightful confusion, as if wilfully and teasingly determined to make 

 the men of science pay for classifying them. The only one of these which I shall 

 mention is the blue-headed wagtail, which is the true yellow wagtail of the 

 Continent, and the type of its class. A very few of these seem to come to us 

 every year, and, just as it is worth while always to look at pied wagtails, to be 

 sure that they are not white wagtails, so it is just as well to glance at the yellow 

 wagtails we see, in case we might some day meet with one that has a bluish head. 

 Should that be the case, the stranger is a rarity, a chance straggler from Holland 

 or France. These most charming birds come to us, as I said, in April. It was 

 on the 2Gth of April this year that I saw a more wonderful sight of them than I 



