1 76 Family Motacillid.b. 



Family— CERTHIID.'E. 



The Wall-Creeper. 



Tu/iodroiJia )iiHrayia, LlNN. 



THE claim of this species to be called British is verj' slight : one example 

 having been shot in Norfolk and recorded in a letter to White, of Selbome, 

 in 1792; and a second in Lancashire, in 1872, mentioned by Mr. F. S. 

 IMitchell. A third specimen, obtained in Sussex, has recently been brought to 

 light by Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield. 



FAMILY MOTACILLID^. 



THE Wagtails, or "Dish-washers" and "Whip-jacks" as the peasants call 

 them, are the most graceful of all our British birds ; the}- are characterized 

 b}- their long slender bills, legs, and tails ; by the minuteness of the tenth 

 primar}' or remicle in the wing ; the tarsus scaled in frout, but not behind. The 

 Pipits are nearly allied to the above, but have somewhat shorter tails in proportion 

 to their wings, the feathers of the tail also forming a slight fork at the extremity. 

 The Motacillidce pass throiigh a complete moult in the autumn, like other 

 Passeres ; but if, as has been stated, they moult again in the spring, I can only 

 say that the species which I have kept in cage and aviar}-, must have swallowed 

 the feathers which the}' shed (which is improbable to say the least of it) : the 

 change into the breeding plumage is very gradual, the colour growing in the 

 feathers themselves. The supposed moulting of many birds in spring, seems to 

 be mysteriously dispensed with in favour of a change of colour, as soou as they 



