108 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 
and is sometimes caged on this account, but can very 
rarely be obtained in the Calcutta market. I do not 
recommend any one to keep such a bird in a cage, 
however, as it ought to have a great deal of room to 
un about and paddle in water. 
THe Grey Wacrtait (Motacilla melanope), although 
more than seven inches long, is a particularly slender 
and delicate-looking bird, the most dainty and graceful 
of all the Wagtails. Its tailis particularly long, and 
hardly ever still. As this bird is usually seen in 
winter, it is bluish-grey above, except the lower 
part of the back which is yellowish-green; the centre 
of the tail is black, and its side feathers mostly white ; 
the eyebrows are white, and so is the throat; the rest 
of the lower plumage is yellow. Both sexes have this 
plumage, but in spring the male’s throat becomes all 
black in the centre with a broad white stripe on each 
side; the hen merely gets a band of black spots on each 
side of the throat. Young birds are like the old ones 
in winter, but with a creamy tinge on the white markings 
of the plumage. 
This exquisite little bird is found in summer over 
most of the northern part of the Old World; in winter 
it goes south, and is one of the first birds which arrives 
to tell us of the approach of the cold weather. It is 
always near water, and has very little fear of men, 
haunting tanks in gardens. For three years the same 
bird turned up every winter at the large tank in the 
Indian Museum grounds, and spent all its time there; / 
I could easily identify it, as by a curious freak of 
