108 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



obtained in the Calcutta market. I do not recommend 

 any one to keep such a bird in a cage, however, as it ought 

 to have a great deal of room to run about and paddle 

 in water. 



THE GREY WAGTAIL (Motacilla melanope), although 

 more than seven inches long, is a particularly slender 

 and delicate-looking bird, the most dainty and graceful 

 of all the Wagtails. Its tail is particularly long, and 

 hardly ever still. As this bird is usually seen in winter, 

 it is bluish-grey above, except the lower part of the back 

 which is yellowish-green ; the centre of the tail is black, 

 and its side feathers mostly white ; the eyebrows are 

 white, and so is the throat ; the rest of the lower plumage 

 is yellow. Both sexes have this plumage, but in spring 

 the male's throat becomes all black in the centre with a 

 broad white stripe on each side ; the hen merely gets a 

 band of black spots on each side of the throat. Young 

 birds are like the old ones in winter, but with a creamy 

 tinge on the white markings of the plumage. 



This exquisite little bird is found in summer over most 

 of the northern part of the Old World ; in winter it goes 

 south, and is one of the first birds which arrives to tell 

 us of the approach of the cold weather. It is always near 

 water, and has very little fear of men, haunting tanks in 

 gardens. For three years the same bird turned up every 

 winter at the large tank in the Indian Museum grounds, 

 and spent all its time there ; I* could easily identify it, as 

 by a curious freak of nature, two of the innermost feathers 

 of the wings were white, forming a V-shaped mark on the 

 bird's back when the wings were closed. 



