WHITE WAGTAI L 



GREY-AND-WHITE WAGTAIL. 



PLATE LXIV. FIGURE II. 

 Motadlla alba t .... LINNAEUS. GMELIN. 



A RARE straggler from the Continent to the South of 

 England. The nest is generally placed in a hole of a 

 bank or of a tree, higher or lower indifferently ; sometimes 

 under the eaves of a thatched house, or between the timbers 

 of a roof, among felled wood, or roots that the earth may 

 have fallen away from, a meadow, under a bridge, or in a 

 heap of stones. Both birds assist in its formation, bringing 

 together for the purpose small sticks and twigs, moss, 

 grass, straws, leaves, and roots, and lining the whole with 

 wool and hair. 



The eggs, which have little or no natural polish on them, 

 and are four or five, six or seven in number, are bluish white 

 in colour, speckled all over with minute grey specks, and 

 spotted with larger spots of brown, principally at the larger 

 end, occasionally in the way of an irregular belt. 



The eggs of this species vary very considerably, some are 

 greenish blue in ground colour, others have the ground colour 

 almost pure white, spotted at the larger end, whilst a third 

 set are spotted over the entire surface. It is not easy 



