550 MOTACILLIDJl. 



on these points. It also occurs in Palestine and Asia 

 Minor, but its limits to the eastward * are as yet beyond the 

 Editor's power of definition, since he cannot now deter- 

 mine what value should be attached to the differences pre- 

 sented, or said to be presented, by numerous allied forms 

 which have been described under a multitude of names as 

 distinct species. 



In general habits, such as food, haunts and so forth, both 

 forms of black-and-white Wagtail which occur in Britain are 

 almost exactly alike. It has been said indeed that the 

 White Wagtail does not follow the plough as our Pied Wag- 

 tail so commonly does, and if that be the case the fact might 

 denote some difference in the choice of food ; but, so far as 

 the Editor's acquaintance with the two birds extends, he 

 cannot observe any distinction in this respect, while, if such 

 really exist, it may perhaps be explained by the consideration 

 that the White Wagtails which accidentally visit these islands 

 are most likely natives of Iceland or other northern countries, 

 where arable land is scarcer than with us, and consequently 

 have not learnt by inherited instinct the advantages offered 

 by our mode of tillage. Several observers, however, have 

 remarked a difference in the call-note of the two birds, a 

 fact noticed by Vieillot, one of the first describers of 

 M. lugubris, who said that it could be easily distinguished 

 by its cry from M. alba. The Editor has never listened to 

 the two birds at the same time or even within a very few days 

 of one another, so that his evidence is not decisive on this 

 point, but he is inclined to agree in the truth of the observa- 

 tion, though he must add that to the best of his belief the 

 call-notes and songs of some other species as the Wheatear 

 and the Kedstart differ with the country in which they are 

 heard. The White Wagtail generally builds its nest in just 

 the same places and in the same style as does the Pied Wag- 

 tail, but the former has been known (Journ. fur Orn. 1864, 

 p. 41) to choose the burrow of a Sand-Martin as its nursery, 

 a fancy which does not seem to have struck the latter. The 

 eggs of each are precisely similar in size and colour. 



* Mr. Blanford believes he obtained it in Beloochistan. 



