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 
prac and grey spots. Av. size, ‘79x ‘59 in. Laying begins 
pril—-May. 
31. White - wagtail [Motacilla alba alba Linneeus]. 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 Linneeus; 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 
— both sexes have the throat white and the eye-stripe 
uff. 
Nest. Place: bank, wall, or rocky ledge, usually near 
streams. Material: moss, twigs, &c., lined usually with hair. 
Lggs. Usually 4-6. Buffish faintly marked with pale brown. 
Av. size, ‘74x °56in. Laying begins April-May. Broods 1-2, 
33. Yellow-wagtail [Motacilla flava rayi rar satel! 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 Linneeus], 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 
abank. Material: grasses, stems, &c., lined usually with fine 
grass and hair. 4 
