WHITE WAGTAIL. 201 
most common continental birds who seldom visit us, a late migrant to its 
breeding-grounds. On the contrary it is one of the earliest birds to arrive 
in North Germany, frequently appearing before March, and even occa- 
sionally remaining during the winter. 
In Siberia I found that the White Wagtail was the first of the soft- 
billed birds to arrive on the Arctic circle in any numbers, the great break- 
up of the ice on the Ist of June being the signal for its appearance on its 
breeding-grounds. In the valley of the Petchora it appeared for the first 
time on the 12th of May, and we got the first eggs on the 15th of June. 
The nesting-site selected by the White Wagtail is precisely similar to that 
chosen by the Pied Wagtail, and the nest is made of similar materials. A 
nest of this bird I found at Alexievka was lined entirely with reindeer’s 
hairs and two or three spider’s cocoons. The eggs of this species are five 
or six in number and vary considerably. The specimens I have in my 
collection may be fairly divided into three distinct types. The first and 
ordinary type is pale greenish blue in ground-colour, spotted and thickly 
speckled, chiefly at the large end, in the form of an irregular zone, with 
greyish brown and with underlying markings of French grey. The second 
type has the ground-colour almost pure white, and the spots and speckles, 
distributed in the same manner as in those already described, are a much 
richer brown. ‘The third type is dull white in ground-colour, thickly 
marbled, splashed, and spotted over the entire surface with reddish brown 
and pale brown. This latter type might almost again be subdivided into 
two, for sometimes the markings are very rich brown and finely powdered 
over the surface, leaving the ground-coiour very strongly appareut, and at 
the larger end of the egg are sometimes a few streaky spots of dark brown 
almost black. The eggs vary in length from 88 to ‘7 inch, and in breadth 
from *62 to 55 inch. It is very difficult to distinguish the eggs of the 
White Wagtail from those of the Pied Wagtail ; but generally the latter are 
not so blue in ground-colour, and the brown, or third type above men- 
tioned, does not seem to occur at all. In temperate Europe the White 
Wagtail rears two broods in the year, the first eggs generally being laid in 
April, the second in June. 
The habits of the White Wagtail are not known to differ in any im- 
portant respect from those of its very close congener the Pied Wagtail, and 
the haunts it frequents are similar. There can be little doubt that this 
pretty little bird is overlooked in this country and confused with the 
common species. Mr. J. Cullingford writes to me, respecting Lincoln- 
shire and Cambridgeshire, that the bird is much more plentiful than 
formerly. He has seen nests of this species, and, as far as his experience 
goes, he says that it breeds later than the Pied Wagtail. Among the spring 
flocks of Pied Wagtails an occasional White Wagtail may not unfrequently 
be seen on the fields with the Rooks following the plough ; they run about 
