v A Chapter on Wagtails 1 1 5 



haunts our own mountain streams. They say, indeed, 

 that in the East his tail is a trifle shorter; and I 

 have a note, written before I knew this, that in the 

 Alps the tails struck me as being hardly so long as 

 they are with us ; but they are quite long enough to 

 mark the bird, and they are everywhere moved up 

 and down with that grave and regular persistence 

 which belongs to no other Wagtail. 



Every fisherman knows the Gray Wagtail, and 

 will bear me out when I say once more that gray is 

 not quite the word for him. If he stands facing you 

 as you fish up-stream, he will show you his black 

 gorget of the breeding season, and the beautiful 

 yellow of his under parts, which has given him the 

 scientific name of sulphur m ; or if you chance to see 

 him from behind, though his head and back will 

 show slate-gray, yet this as it nears the tail becomes 

 greenish-yellow, and the tail itself is not gray, but 

 nearly black in colour, with the two outer feathers 

 bright white. The bird is in fact at a first glance 

 not unlike the Yellow Wagtail, with which it has 

 often been confused; but the black gorget brings 

 it rather into relation with the Pied Wagtail, 

 which has the same conspicuous addition to its 

 dress in spring. Yet from both birds it is quite 

 distinct, in habits as well as appearance, and seems 

 to stand entirely by itself in the little world of 

 Wagtails. 



