240 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



principal difference between the wooing of her and of the female 

 grey-wagtail. 



The male blueheaded-wagtail does all this, and more that is to 

 say, he has been definitely seen to do more, and the excess put on 

 record. Puffing out his feathers, to an unusual degree, he both fans 

 the tail and bends it, or lets it hang downwards, as he descends, in a 

 very singular, fluttering manner, from the twig or bough on which he 

 has been perched. The tail-coverts are now so ruffled as to give to 

 this part of the body a very much thicker appearance than is usual, 

 the head is drawn in, so that the beak points slightly upwards, thus 

 displaying the white and yellow of chin and throat, with their delicate 

 blendings, whilst the pendent tail is spread to an extreme degree; 

 the wings tremble and the whole performance is of the most striking 

 character. Arrived upon the ground, the bird walks, not only by, but 

 around the female, the plumage still puffed, the tail still fanned, 

 whilst the wings now droop at the same time that they are fluttered. 1 

 Thus the elegant stripings of their upper surface, as well as the olive- 

 green of the back, with the bluish head and white eye-stripe all in fact 

 that was not visible or fully visible from below are brought promin- 

 ently before her, 2 so that the bird might well say, " I show thee all 

 I can. I can no more." In a generally similar manner, but with 

 some varying touches of his own, the yellow-wagtail also displays his 

 somewhat lesser adornments, " hovering, like a kestrel, about eighteen 

 inches above the female, in the grass below." 3 When we see a little 

 bird thus acting, we should try to magnify it in the imagination. 

 Assuredly, were a wagtail but as large as a thrush or blackbird, such 

 displays as these would be thought both beautiful and interesting. 

 Naturalists would take considerable pains to witness them, and we 

 should hear much of "gorgeous effect," and nothing of "deficiency 

 of courting actions." Increase the size still further say to that of 

 a magpie and the Motacillidce would become almost as world-famed 



1 Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, iii. 



1 Naumann, Ibid. 3 Coward and Oldham, Birds of Cheshire. 



