THE WAGTAILS. 27 



THE PIED WAGTAIL, 



(Afotaa'lla Yarrelli.} 



PLATE II. FIGURE IV. 



THIS bird was so named after the naturalist William Yarrell. 

 Gould, in his magnificent "Birds of Europe," was the first to give 

 it this name; hitherto it had been known to science as M. alba, 

 the White Wagtail, two distinct species having been considered and 

 described as one. Gould says of this species, that besides the 

 British Islands, Norway and Sweden were the only countries from 

 which he was able to obtain specimens; while of the White Wagtail 

 he tells ns that the place of the Pied variety is supplied, in the tem- 

 perate parts of Europe, by its lighter-coloured relative; which, although 

 abundant in France, particularly in the neighbourhood of Calais, has 

 never yet been discovered on the opposite shores of Kent, nor in 

 any part of England. The identity of the two species, if two there 

 be, does not seem however to be very clearly made out. Perhaps 

 after all it will be found that M. Y. and M. A. are the same bird in 

 different dresses; several eminent naturalists incline to this opinion. 

 Pending the settlement of this disputed question, we must take the 

 arrangement as we find it in all modern natural histories, and de- 

 scribe our Pied, or White-and-Black Wagtail, as if no such doubt 

 of his two-fold personality existed. He is a very elegant bird, about 

 seven inches and a half in length, of a slender form, like all his near 

 relations; his forehead and sides of the head are white, as are the 

 chin, throat, and breast; deep black with a glossy blue tinge in 

 summer, is the crown and back of the head; there is a semicircular 

 band of the same extending upwards to the base of the bill, where 

 the short bristles project pretty thickly; there is a grey shade on 

 the sides of the neck and along the back, which has in summer a 

 purple gloss, changing to green in some individuals. A glance at 

 our picture will show that there is not much variety of colour, there 

 being little else than black and white ; yet these are so prettily mingled, 

 shaded, and contrasted, as to produce a very pleasing effect, which is 



