350 APLIN : OBSERVATIONS ON THE WHITE WAGTAIL, 
the White Wagtail utter a note so loud as those which the Pied 
Wagtail occasionally gives vent to. 
The White Wagtail is certainly a most elegant bird, and I agree 
with Mr. Macpherson in thinking that it has a more graceful slender 
appearance. ‘The few skins I have by me seem on the whole to bear 
this out, but the Pied Wagtail, like many other birds, varies a little 
in size. 
How far the more slender appearance in life may be due to the 
respective colours of the birds I cannot say. Would the black bird 
naturally appear more robust than the grey one, or not? I have 
rarely seen more elegant birds, both for shape and colour, than the 
full-fledged young White Wagtails, which were especially noticeable 
when running over the newly-mown hay grass. The whole of the 
upper parts, with the exception of the wings and tail, are light dead 
grey (wanting the clear pearly hue seen in old birds), and there are 
none of the dusky shades seen in the young of the Pied Wagtails, 
nor any signs of the dusky bands at the sides of the cap. A dark 
crescent on their light breasts is conspicuous. An adult at Stansstad, 
with a little black on the head (and probably a female), was the only 
one I saw which showed any mottling on the back; it was a peculiar 
looking bird, with almost a rusty shade about it. It is a pity that 
the grey rump, as the distinguishing mark of the White Wagtail, is 
not better known, as a Mf. yarrel/i in autumn dress occasionally 
figures as M. alba. 
I often saw the White Wagtail perching on roofs (both those of 
chalets and of stone houses) in the towns and villages; in Bern, 
Interlaken, and Meiringen, for instance. But I may say the same of 
the Pied Wagtail, more especially in villages (for our bird is not so 
fond of towns as his continental relation) in England. 
The White Wagtail takes a great deal of insect food on the 
wing, and, I think, hawks flies to a greater extent than our bird 
does. It was pretty to watch the former, old and young, at Meirin- 
gen flitting along the stone banks of the rushing river Aare, and 
hawking insects over the water. Some would flit right across, 
fluttering and jerking in the air as they captured the flies by the way ; 
others, pausing a few seconds in mid-stream, returned to the bank 
they started from. But winged insects are very abundant in 
Switzerland, and possibly tempt many birds to feed in this fashion. 
Dippers were hawking for flies in the air in the same place. 
I did not meet with the White Wagtail at a greater elevation than 
about 3,300 ft. But this was in June, and the season was a late 
one, snow lying in a large mass, where it had slipped down on to 
one alp as low down as about 4,000 ft. In one locality (6,000 ft.) 
Naturalist 
