160 



PIED WAGTAIL. 



WATER WAGTAIL. WHITE WAGTAIL. 



BLACK AXD WHITE WAGTAIL. WIIfTER WAGTAIL. 



PEGGY WASH-DISH. DISH-WASHER. 



Motacilla YarTelUi, Gould. Macgillivray. 



" alba, LiXN.EUs. Latham. 



" lotory Een>'ie. 



MotadUa—X Wagtail. YarreUa—Oi: Yarrell. 



OiSE is often led to wonder, and doubtless the same remark 

 would appl}' to other lands, how the most trivial names of 

 antiquity keep their place in the vocabulary of the country; 

 while modern inventions last but for the day, or for the 

 hour, and are then consigned for ever to the 'tomb of all the 

 Capulets.' One may soon be lost in speculation as to the 

 time when each of such old names was first assigned, and 

 who it was that gave it; what combination of circumstances 

 first procured for it the honour of the durability which bids 

 fair to be perpetual ; and through what succession of changes 

 it has been maintained. These considerations make us smile 

 at the vain conceits of some of our m.odern self-styled 

 naturalists. Do they really think, dogmatically as they may 

 lay down the law to their own entire satisfaction, that their 

 whimsical combinations will ever be adopted b}^ the people 

 of the country — that the old will be displaced to make room 

 for the new? They are fondly mistaken if they entertain the 

 notion. The name of the favourite and elegant little bird 

 before us — no case of 'lucus a non lucendo' — will even remain, 

 one of the 'old standards:' no 'weak invention' will ever su- 

 persede it in the idiom of the nation. The Wagtail will 



