TEE WAGTAILS. 23 



THE WHITE WAGTAIL, 



(Motadlla alba.} 

 PLATE II. PIGUEB I. 



THIS bird is sometimes called the Grey and White Wagtail; it is 

 found all over the Continent of Europe, but is with us a rare bird, 

 if it be indeed distinct from the common Pied species. Yarrell gives 

 cuts of both varieties, showing the difference between their summer 

 and winter plumage, the latter being much the lightest in colour, and 

 less decided in its contrasts of black and white; in the M. alba these 

 mingle very much, and shade off into a delicate grey, but in all there 

 is the black cap, neck, and breast, and one fails to perceive any such 

 marked distinction as would constitute a specific difference. In their 

 habits, too, these birds are so much alike, that the British and 

 Continental species might well be considered as identical. 



These birds, ever active and restless by day, haunt the shores and 

 marshes, and more inland places where streams abound. They roost 

 at night among the reeds and brushwood, and lower boughs of the 

 trees which grow in such situations, often as the gloom approaches 

 making quite a clamour, like the Books, as though disputing about 

 the most comfortable beds, only their voices are not harsh and dis- 

 cordant, like that of the Corvus or Rook tribe; on the contrary, it is 

 rather sweet, though shrill, and with a kind of complaining note in 

 it. They, too, occasionally visit the gardens, and forage upon the 

 thatched house-tops, under the eaves of which their nests may some- 

 times be found ; but more usually they are placed in holes of walls 

 and banks, under bridges, and amid heaps of stones. Both male and 

 female work at this family dwelling, for the construction of which 

 they collect hay and straw, leaves and fine roots, wool or hair, or 

 anything sufficiently soft for their purpose ; these they put loosely 

 together, and make the nest warm and comfortable inside with a 

 lining of wool, hair, or feathers. The eggs are from four to six, or 

 even seven in number, of a bluish white colour, with small grey 

 specks and larger spots of brown all over them, sometimes thicker at 

 certain parts, so as to form an irregular belt. In autumn, when the 



