108 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



.and is sometimes caged on this account, but can very 

 rarely be 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 



