Wagtails 651 



THE WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



(Family Motacillidce) 



The family MotacillidcK, comprising the Wagtails and Pipits, is a small one, 

 embracing less than one hundred forms of mostly plain-plumaged birds, of 

 almost world-wide distribution. Certain of them more especially the Pipits 

 have a strong, albeit superficial resemblance to the Larks (Alaudid<z), but they 

 are distinguished from them at once by the different form and scutellation of the 

 tarsus. They are insectivorous birds of eminently terrestrial habits, walking or 

 running on the ground in a graceful, "mincing" manner instead of hopping, and 

 frequenting mostly open places, such as prairies, fields, deserts, banks of rivers 

 and ponds, and sometimes marshes, though a few, as the true Pipits, seek their 

 food on the ground amidst thin underbrush, occasionally hopping into the lower 

 branches when alarmed. They have slender conoid bills which are always 

 shorter than the head and slightly notched subterminally, long slender tarsi, and 

 slender toes, the claw of the hind toe (hallux) being usually elongated and equal 

 to or even exceeding the digit in length. Their wings are rather long and pointed, 

 the outermost four or five of the nine primaries being longest, while the inner- 

 most secondaries are greatly elongated, often equaling and sometimes exceed- 

 ing the longest primaries ; the tail is variable in length, but is never much shorter, 

 and is sometimes longer, than the wing, being longest in the Wagtails. 



The Typical Wagtails (MotaciUa), w r hich range widely throughout the Old 

 World with the exception of Australia and Polynesia (two species are accidental 

 or occasional in Greenland and Alaska, respectively), are usually pied, black, 

 gray, and white in plumage, though some are partially bright yellow; all are con- 

 spicuously devoid of streaks, spots, or mottlings. The sexes are nearly or quite 

 alike, though there are often striking differences between the summer and 

 winter plumage. As might be presumed, they take their common name from 

 their habit of vibrating the body and tail, which they do constantly. The Pied 

 Wagtail (M. lugubris] of Great Britain and western Europe frequents gardens 

 and meadows, and, according to Mr. Hudson's delightful account, is one of the 

 creatures that seem never to be in the same mind for two moments in succession. 

 "He runs, then stands, and shakes his tail, for two or three moments he searches 

 for food ; then chases an insect, and is still again, waiting for a new impulse to 

 move him : suddenly he flies away, not straight as if with an object in view, but 

 with a curving, dipping, erratic flight, governed seemingly by no will, and just 

 as suddenly alighting again, when he is once more seen standing still and shaking 

 his tail. The call note, a sharp chirp of two syllables, is emitted once or twice 

 during flight. The song is a loud, hurried warble, uttered on the wing as the 

 bird hovers at a moderate height from the ground. But the Pied Wagtail has 

 another way of singing, especially in early spring: this is a warble so low that 

 at a distance of fifteen yards it is but just audible, and is uttered continuously 

 for two or three minutes at a stretch." The nesting operations commence in 

 April or early May; the nest, which is composed of grasses, moss, fine roots, etc., 



