7b NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE FIRST FAMILY OF THE FINCH-LIKE BIRDS. THE MOTACILLID^E. 

 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS. 



These birds can always be recognised by a striking peculiarity of the wing, which, in addition to 

 their habits and general economy, proclaims at a glance their Lark-like affinity. In the Wagtails and 

 Pipits the innermost secondaries are of extreme length, nearly equalling the long primaries. This 

 is a feature which is very pronounced in all Larks, like which birds, also, the Wagtails and Pipits 

 seek their food on the ground, have large feet in proportion to their size, and progress by walking 

 instead of by hops. Some of the Pipits, too, have the habit of mounting into the air and uttering 

 their song, much the same as a Woodlark would do, though not to the same extent as a Skylark. 

 The eggs of the Pipits likewise resemble to a great extent those of a Lark. 



The Wagtails may be recognised from the Pipits by their longer tail, which exceeds the wing in 

 length, whereas in the last-named group of birds the wing is either equal to the tail or exceeds it in 

 dimensions. They may be divided naturally into two gi-oups, called the Pied or Water Wagtails 

 (Motacilla), and the Field Wagtails (Budytes). As a rule, the prevailing colours in the latter group 

 are grey and yellow, and they have rather shorter tails, but it is doubtful whether more than one 

 genus of Wagtails can properly be recognised, for there is an intermediate form, the Gi-ey Wagtail 

 (Motacilla melanope), which combines the habits and form of an ordinary Water Wagtail with the 

 grey and yellow coloration of a Field Wagtail. 



THE PIED WAGTAIL (Motacilla lugubns}. 



This is one of the peculiarly English birds, being one of the few European species which are 

 common in the British Islands and rare in other parts of the Continent ; this, at least, is true as 

 regards the breeding season. In the south of England it is a resident bird, though the numbers 

 decrease in veiy severe weather, when the bird probably migrates, for in Western Scotland it may be 

 looked upon as a regular migratory species, as it has been stated to disappear entirely from its 

 summer haunts in the outer Hebrides, where it returns again in spring. It was at one time supposed, 

 to be only a native of Great Britain, and is even to this day best known by the name of Motacilla 

 yarrelli, having been thus called by Mr. Gould, after the celebrated English naturalist Yarrell. In 

 the part of Berkshire near Cookham, where many of the writer's personal expeiiences of birds have 

 been gathered, the Wagtail is the especial victim of the Cuckoo, many of whose eggs he has found in 

 the nest of the Pied " Dishwasher," as he is familiarly called in that and in most parts of the country. 

 On one occasion the nest was built in the mould of a flower-basket on the lawn at Formosa, near 

 Cookham, and at some distance from the edge of the wood-work. There the nest was found by 

 Mr. Briggs, the head-gardener on the estate, one of the best field-naturalists know:: to the writer, as 

 indeed is testified by the frequent references to his observations in Mr. Gould's " Birds of Great 

 Britain," and to this day his untimely death is deplored by all who knew him. The Cuckoo's egg 

 was duly pointed out by Mr. Briggs, but so exactly alike in colour was it to the other eggs of the 

 foster-parent, that the writer expressed the strongest doubts as to its being really anything but a 

 rather large Wagtail's egg. Time, however, proved the contrary, and it was not long before tin- 

 nest, Avhich was rather a rudely constructed affair, placed in a hollow depression in the mould of 

 the flower-basket, was completely filled by a hungry, yellow, gaping, young Cuckoo, who, on being 

 hatched, disposed in the usual cuculine way of his foster-brothers and sisters. These were found, 

 curiously enough, lying dead on the grass at some little distance from the flower-basket, and the 

 question which was asked was, whether the old Cuckoo really is the uirregenerate deserter of its 

 offspring that it is generally made out to be, or whether it still takes a parental interest in the young 

 birds, which it nevertheless leaves to the care of foster-parents to bring up. Mr. Briggs always held 

 the idea that the Cuckoo was not devoid of this natural instinct, and he imagined that the removal 

 of the young Wagtails was the work of one of the parents of the young Cuckoo. It is, however, 

 probable that the old Wagtails, finding the dead bodies of the nestlings left on the mould, themselves 

 acted as undertakers, and carried them to some little distance. All the time that the nest was under 

 examination the Wagtails were in close attendance, with their mouths full of caterpillars and insects, 

 evincing the utmost distress, and running about on the edge of the flower-basket. Mr. Gould even 



