86 FASSERES. SYLVIAD^E. 



porters and chairmen, carrying luggage, nearly 

 came in contact with the cage, which was hung at 

 the foot of the staircase ; yet even here did this 

 bird sing as mellow, as sweet, and as sprightly as 

 did those of Geneva. We have often stopped to 

 hear it, and listened with the greatest pleasure, 

 and as the pieman passed with his jingling bell, 

 a sound now seldom heard in the streets of Edin- 

 burgh, the bird seemed more sprightly, and war- 

 bled with renewed spirit and energy." * 



GENUS MOTACILLA. (LiNN.) 



The great extent of the Family Sylviada in- 

 duces us to illustrate it by another form, the 

 habits of which differ much in detail from those 

 of the more typical Warblers. The Wagtails have 

 been briefly but graphically described as " an 

 active graceful race, tripping it along the smooth- 

 shaven grass-plots, edges of ponds, and sandy 

 river-shores in unwearied search for their insect 

 food, and with tails which never cease to vibrate 

 as long as their restless little bodies are in 

 action. 



The genus Motacilla, as now restricted to the 

 Wagtails, is characterized by the beak being slen- 

 der, nearly straight, slightly entering among the fea- 

 thers of the forehead ; the gape smooth ; the wings 

 with the first and second quills longest, the ter- 

 tiary feathers greatly lengthened, extending nearly 

 to the tip of the closed wing, a peculiarity of such 

 birds, of various Orders, as haunt the borders of 

 shallow water ; the legs and feet long, particularly 

 the tarsi ; the tail very long, and incessantly in 



* Syme's Brit. Song : birds, p. 97. 



