BLACK-AND-WHITE BIRDS. 23 



and under parts white ; sides and flanks blackish. 

 Back gray after autumn moult; always gray in 

 female and marked irregularly with some black. Bill 

 and legs black. Resident. 



Eggs. — 4—6, grayish- white, spotted all over with 

 ash-colour beneath warmer brown speckles ; "8 >< '6 

 inch (plate 121). 



Nest. — Of dry grass, rootlets, and moss, lined with 

 hair and feathers, and placed in a niche of a rock, 

 wall, or bank, or in any similar recess in thatch, or 

 a pile of wood or turf. 



From the above description it will be seen that 

 the plumage of the Pied Wagtail is entirely black 

 and white, and that the markings are distributed in 

 a highly variegated pattern. In summer the in- 

 tensity of the contrast is such aS; to make the Pied 

 Wagtail the most startlingly conspicuous of all the 

 smaller birds. It is almost excltisively a ground- 

 bird, frequenting the water-side and the adjoining 

 meadows, where it often attends the cattle for the 

 sake of the insects they disturb.. It is a walking 

 bird, running hither and thither abruptly with rapid 

 gait, or starting up to catch a passing insect on the 

 wing, but at every pause between its movements 

 ' marking time,' as it were, by the ceaseless wagging 

 of its long, elegant tail. Its flight is marked by a 

 series of rapid wing-beats, after which, with wings 

 laid back, the bird rises and sinks in a long, shallow 

 curve, recovering itself by another series of rapid 

 wing-beats, and so on. As it flies it cries, ' Tizit ! 

 tizit ! ' There is no other ground- feeding, long- 

 tailed, walking bird entirely black and white except 



