258 



WAGTAILS AND PIPITS. 



a. Wag"tails. Motacilla. 



Tail, quite long; colors, black, white, and gray, some- 

 times yellow beneath. 



1. WHITE WAGTAIL, M. alba. 7.00; forehead, sides 

 of neck, beneath, and outer tail feathers, white; crown, hind 

 neck, and throat, black; back, ashy. Breeds in Europe; ac- 

 cidental in Greenland. 



b. Pipits. Antlius. 



Tail, not as long; brown above; whitish below, streaked 

 with brown. 



1. AMEEICAN PIPIT, A. pennsylvanicus. 6.50; 

 grayish-olive above, indistinctly streaked with darker; be- 

 neath, cinnamon-buff; streaks on breast and sides, broad and 

 numerous, fig. 339 ; outer tail feathers, nearly white. Breeds 



Fig. 339. from Newfoundland and 



mountains of Colorado 

 northward ; winters from 

 the Carolinas southward 

 to M e X i c o . Common 

 during migration, espec- 

 ially near the coast ; 

 south in Sep. and- Oct. : 

 north in May. Frequents 

 CC, K, b, 1. 1-3. open fields and marshes, 



and bea*ies. Gregarious. Call, a low, double note. Flight, 



undulating and erratic. 



2. MEADOW PIPIT, A. peatensis. Differs from 1 in 

 being greenish above and below and in being more heavily 

 streaked above. Europe ; accidental in Greenland. 



3. SPRAGUE'S PIPIT, A. bpragu bu Smaller than 1 ; 

 bill, shorter; paler beneath with narrow streakings, very few 

 on sides; light edgings to feathers above paler. Breeds on 

 the interior plains of N. A. from eastern Montana north in- 

 to Manitoba; winters in Tex., Mexico, and southern La. ; 

 rare in S. C. Flight song, a clear, harmonious melody, given 

 as the bird hovers high in air. 



