302 THE WAGTAILS. 



According to Kjaerbolling, it has, however, been found in 

 Denmark in four instances. 



The White Wagtail (Ring-Aria ; Sades-Arla, Sw. ; 

 Motacilla alba, Linn.) was very common about Ronnum 

 as a summer visitant ; as it also is throughout Scandinavia. 

 M. Malm met with it everywhere in northern Lapland, as 

 high up even as the Icy Sea. It made its appearance with 

 us in the beginning of April, and continued to arrive until 

 the end of the month.* 



In the south of Sweden, where this wagtail appears in the 

 spring about the time the ice is breaking up, it is called 

 Is-Spjarna literally the kicker away of the ice. In places 

 it also goes by the name of Kok-Arla, or the clod-wagtail, 

 because it is so constantly seen amongst the clods in the 

 new-ploughed fields. There is, moreover, a saying in parts 

 of Sweden, that if the farmer commences ploughing either 

 before the coming or departure of the white wagtail, success 

 will not attend his endeavours. 



With us the female made her nest in the crevices of rocks, 

 in old walls, under bridges, &c. ; she lays from four to eight 

 greyish-white eggs, sprinkled all over with larger and smaller, 

 brown and grey spots. 



The Motacilla Yarrellii, Gould (M. lugubris, Temm., 



* " Yarrell, when speaking of the wagtails," writes a friend, a good natu- 

 ralist, " is greatly in error. He says the wagtail so^ common in England 

 is not found except in Norway and Sweden ; but another occupies the conti- 

 nent where our wagtail (the English) seldom is seen. A few wagtails^ are 

 sometimes observed in Cornwall in winter ; and in Devonshire, at the earliest, in 

 the middle of February ; but in the rest of England only occasionally an 

 isolated individual can be seen during winter. What becomes therefore of a 

 purely insectivorous bird, of which such enormous numbers are to be seen in 

 England in summer, and also in Norway and Sweden ?" 



