194 BRITISH BIRDS. 
MOTACILLA YARRELLII. 
PIED WAGTAIL. 
(PLatE 14.) 
Motacilla alba, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 331 (1766, partim). 
Motacilla lugubris, Pallas, fide Temm. Man. d Orn. i. p. 253 (1820, partim). 
Motacilla lotor, Rennie, Mont. Orn. Dict. p. 377 (1888). 
Motacilla yarrellii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 74; et auctorum plurimorum 
— Bonaparte, Degland § Gerbe, Salvadori, Savi, Homeyer, Blasius, T aczanowsky, 
Varrell, Gray, Macgillivray, Thompson, Irby, Sharpe, Harting, Stevenson, &c. 
Motacilla alba lugubris, Schlegel, Rev. Crit. p. 87 (1844). 
The Pied Wagtail is very widely distributed throughout the British 
Islands, and, except in the extreme north, is a resident species. It appears 
to be migratory in the Hebrides, and is also a summer visitor to St. Kilda. 
To the Shetlands it is a spring and autumn visitor, most numerous at 
the latter season; but it is not known to have visited the Faroes or 
Tceland. 
On the continent the distribution of the Pied Wagtail is extremely 
limited. It breeds sparingly in the south-west of Norway, frequently 
occurring on Heligoland on migration; and it occasionally breeds in 
Holland, and more abundantly in North-west France. It is a common 
winter visitor to South-west France, Portugal, and Western Spain, and 
occasionally crosses the straits into Tangiers. Stragglers have been 
obtained in Belgium, and as far east as Italy and Sicily. 
Although Temminck and Vieillot were acquainted with the Pied Wag- 
tail as early as 1820, and recognized its distinctness from the White Wag- 
tail, English ornithologists confounded the two together until 1837, when 
Gould, with his habitual keen eye for a species, pointed out the difference 
between them. The confusion arose from the imperfect diagnosis of 
Linnzeus, who doubtless himself knew both forms, and considered them 
identical, since he not only refers both to the Motacilla alba of Willughby 
and of Albin, which are unmistakably black-backed birds, but also adopted 
the name which these ornithologists had used, and apparently so worded 
his apology for a description as to include them both. 
The Pied Wagtail, although it is so common, from its neat appearance and 
lively cheerful habits is always admired. It loves to frequent the neigh- 
bourhood of water, which is almost as essential to its presence as it is to 
the Dipper. It frequents every variety of scenery, and may be seen 
daintily running round the margins of mountain-pools and upland-lakes 
as well as near the horse-ponds, brooks, and large sheets of water in the 
