THE PIED WAGTAIL 
any dead vegetable refuse, lined with hair, wool, and 
feathers. ‘The five or six eggs are greyish white, freckled 
and spotted with pale brown and grey, and occasionally 
scratched with dark brown. ‘The young keep in company 
with their parents for some time, and many of the later 
broods remain together through the winter, during which 
season the bird is more or less gregarious. 
The adult male Pied Wagtail in summer plumage has 
the upper parts black, except the forehead, ear-coverts, and 
the sides of the neck, which are white ; the wing-coverts 
are marked with white, and the inner secondaries and two 
outside tail-feathers are white; the other wing and tail- 
feathers are black. ‘The throat and upper breast are black, 
which joins the black of the upper parts at the shoulder 
and isolates the white on the sides of the neck from the 
white of the remainder of the under parts. Bill black; 
tarsi and toes black; irides brown. Length about 74 
inches. ‘The female in similar plumage resembles the 
male, but the colours of the upper parts are never so pure, 
and mottled with grey. ‘The nestling is nearly uniform 
grey, and after the first moult the white parts then assumed 
are suffused with yellow. In winter plumage the adult 
has a white throat, and the black on the breast is repre- 
sented by a crescentic band; the back is grey, and the 
nape black. 
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