WAGTAILS 21 



Nest. Place : usually recesses in walls or banks ; also 

 thatches, burrows, old nests, ivy, and elsewhere. Material : 

 moss, roots, twigs, leaves, &c., lined with grasses, hair, 

 feathers, &c. 



Eggs. Usually 5-6. Greyish-white marked with leaden 

 brown and grey spots. Av. size, *79 x "59 in. Laying begins 

 April-May. 



31. White - wagtail [Motacilla alba alba Linnaeus]. A 

 summer visitor breeding sparingly chiefly on the south and 

 east of England. Also a bird of passage seen mostly on our 

 western seaboard. 



Bird. See pied-wagtail. The male white-wagtail differs in 

 the breeding season from the male pied-wagtail in having the 

 back and rump grey instead of black. Otherwise the two 

 forms are not easily distinguished. The female has grey in 

 the white of the forehead and black of the crown. After the 

 autumn moult both sexes resemble the pied form at the same 

 season, but the white form has grey instead of black tail- 

 coverts. 



Nest and Eggs. As pied-wagtail. 



32. Grey-wagtail {Motacilla boarula boarula Linnaeus ; M. 

 melanope Pallas]. Resident in hilly districts, but not common. 



Bird. Length 7*25 in. Distinguished from other wagtails 

 by the uniform slate-blue of the upper-parts and longer tail. 

 The male, in breeding plumage, has the throat black, white 

 stripes above and below the eye, sulphur-yellow under-parts, 

 white on the outer tail-feathers. The female differs chiefly in 

 having little or no black on the throat. After the autumn 

 moult both sexes have the throat white and the eye-stripe 

 buff. 



Nest. Place: bank, wall, or rocky ledge, usually near 

 streams. Material : moss, twigs, &c., lined usually with hair. 



Eggs. Usually 4-6. Buffish faintly marked with pale brown. 

 Av. size, '74 x '56 in. Laying begins April-May. Broods 1-2. 



33. Yellow-wagtail [Motacilla flava rayi (Bonaparte)]. A 

 summer visitor chiefly to the English and Scottish lowlands. 



Bird. Length 6-30 in. Distinguished from the preceding 

 species by the olive-green of the upper-parts and bright 

 yellow ^ eye-stripe, and' from the rarer allied blueheaded- 

 wagtail [M. flava flava Linnaeus], by having the crown yellow 

 instead of blue, the eye-stripe yellow instead of white. The 

 under-parts are bright yellow, wings and tail chiefly dusky 

 brown, the outer tail-feathers white. 



Nest. Usually on the ground in meadows or fields, or in 

 a bank. Material : grasses, stems, &c., lined usually with fine 

 grass and hair. 



