Il6 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



This well-known bird is common in most parts of 

 Ireland, and may be seen everywhere near water, 

 running nimbly, picking up insects, and sometimes 

 rising to capture one, with a cheerful " chiz-zic " or 

 " chiz-zit " all the time. 



His song is a pleasing, hurried, jumble of notes, and 

 may be heard more or less in every month in the year. 

 It is uttered sometimes when the bird is on the ground, 

 or from some bush or wall, and very often from a house- 

 top. Its flight is uncertain and very undulating. That 

 charming writer, Rev. W. Warde Fowler, in his Summer 

 Studies of Birds and Books, says : " It is impossible ever 

 to weary of Wagtails. We are never altogether without 

 them ; yet whenever they present themselves to us, we 

 are constrained to give them our attention : their beauty, 

 their graceful flight, their unobtrusive confidence, and 

 that constant, unresting activity of theirs, which never 

 degenerates into fidgetiness, are sources of never-failing 

 pleasure to the beholder." "When the Pied Wagtail 

 was first distinguished from its Continental cousins, it 

 received the unfortunate name of Motacilla lugubris, or 

 ' the Wagtail in mourning,' in allusion to its black ; and 

 to give such a name to such a bird is to forget that 

 he is something more than an ' arrangement ' in 

 feathers. I do not think that a Wagtail could look 

 mournful even under the most painful circumstances." 

 It is now generally known as " M. Yarrellii," a name 

 given it by Gould in honour of his friend, Yarrell. 



The White Wagtail M. Alba is abundant in the 

 neighbourhood of Calais, but is a rare visitor to 

 England and Ireland. I saw one, years ago, near 

 Clifton Suspension Bridge ; but I have never met with 



