436 THE COMMON PIED WAGTAIL. 



being apparently regardless of man. The same character was 

 noticed in the specimens both at Cambridge and at Wells, the 

 birds allowing observers to approach unusually close to them, 

 and when at length obliged to move, making very short flights, 

 and always settling on some part of the nearest building. The 

 resemblance of the steeple-crowned stone edifices of Cambridge, 

 and at the Deanery of Wells, to the pointed and elevated rocks 

 of their own peculiar haunts, were supposed to have been the 

 attraction in both the localities referred to." 



170. THE COMMON PIED WAGTAIL. 

 Motacilla Alda, LIN. Lavandier, BUF. Die Weisse Bachstelze, BECH. 



Description. This well-known bird is seven inches in length, 

 of which the tail measures three inches and a half. The beak 

 is five lines long, pointed, and black ; the iris is dark brown ; 

 the shanks black, slender, and one inch in height. The top 

 of the head is black ; the rest of the upper part of the body, 

 as well as the sides of the breast and the lesser wing coverts, 

 bluish ashen grey. The forehead, cheeks, and sides of the neck 

 are snowy white ; the throat and the upper half of the breast 

 black ; the rest of the under part of the body white. The wings 

 are dark brown ; the coverts and hinder pen feathers having a 

 broad margin of white, which produces a white stripe on the 

 folded wings. The tail feathers are black, with the exception 

 of the outermost, which is almost wholly white, and the se- 

 cond is marked with a wedge-shaped white spot. 



In the female the white hue of the cheeks and forehead is 

 not so pure ; the top of the head is not so black, and the bor- 

 der of the wings is narrower and greyer than in the male. In 

 some cases, the head and back are the same colour. 



Before the first moulting, the young have a very different 

 appearance, so much so, that of them and the young of the 

 Yellow Wagtail, some naturalists have made a distinct species, 

 which they call "the Grey Wagtail " (Motacilla Cinerea). The 

 upper part of the body is grey ; the throat and belly dingy 

 white, and on the breast is a crescent-shaped grey, or greyish 

 brown stripe. The wings have a whitish border. There are 

 also varieties of this bird ; some entirely white, and others 

 mottled, or speckled with white in a peculiar manner. 



Habitat. The Wagtail is found near houses, in the open 

 country, in mountainous or woody districts, or wherever its 



