THE WALL-CREEPER. 175 



Family CER THHD^.. 



THE WALL-CREEPER. 



Tichodroma muraria, L,INN. 



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

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

 in 1792; and a second in L/ancashire, in 1872, mentioned by Mr. F. S. Mitchell. 

 A third specimen, obtained in Sussex, has recently been brought to light by Mr. 

 W. Ruskin Butterfield. 



FAMILY MOTACILLID^E. 



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

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

 by their long slender bills, legs, and tails ; by the absence of a bastard primary 

 in the wing ; the tarsus scaled in front, 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 Motacillida pass through 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 aviary, must have swallowed 

 the feathers which they 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 soon as they 

 are brought under close observation. In some birds, however, a few feathers, 

 which represent a sort of winter coat, drop out during the change of plumage : 

 this is certainly the case with some, if not all of the African Weavers,* (whether 



* I employ the term only for those birds called Weavers by aviculturists, not for all the members of the 

 family Ploceida:. 



