Locality. 
Haunts. 
Food. 
208 PASSERES. MOTACILLA. PIED 
Pied Wagtail.— Motacilla alba, Linn. 
PLATE 49. Fig. 1. 
Motacilla alba, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 331. 11.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 960. sp. 11.— 
Lath. Ind. Ornith. v. 2. p. 501. sp. 1. and var. B. and Y. Rati, Syn. 
p- 75. A. 1.—Will. p. 171. t. 42. Briss. 3. p. 461. 38. 
La Lavandiére, Buff: Ois. v. 5. p. 251. t. 14. f. 1.—Id. Pl. Enl. 652. f. 1. 
male in spring plumage. 
Bergeronette grise, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. v. 1. p. 255. . 
Weise Bachstelze, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. v. 1. p. 216.—Id. Vog. Deut. 
Heft. 3. male, female, and young. 
White Wagtail, Br. Zool. 1. No. 142. t. 55.—Arct. Zool. 2. p. 396. B.— 
Will. (Ang.) p. 237.—Lath. Syn. 4. p. 395. 1.—Id. Sup. p. 178.—Lewin’s 
Br. Birds, 3. t. 95.—Waie. Syn. 2. t. 226.—Mont. Ornith. Dict.—-Pult. 
Cat. Dorset. p. 8.—Bewick’s Br. Birds, 1. t. p. 194.—Shaw’s Zool. v. 10. 
p- 545. 
Provincial, Pied Wagtail, Black and White Wagtail, Dish- 
~ washer, Washer-woman. 
This lively bird is well known, and very generally distri- 
buted throughout Great Britain, being found, during its po- 
lar migration, as far to the northward as the Orkney Islands.— 
In the scuthern counties of England it is indigenous, remain- 
ing through the whole year; but in the northern parts it is 
regularly migratory, retiring southward about the middle of © 
October, and not re-appearing till February or the beginning 
of March.—It frequents the open margins of rivers and 
lakes, or meadows in the immediate vicinity of water; and is 
partial to closely mown lands.—It runs with celerity, and is 
in continual motion in pursuit of the insects that fly near the 
surface, which it also catches by short turns of flight just about 
the ground, with singular dexterity. In addition to the per- 
fect insects, it feeds upon their larvae, and upon worms. Its 
usual note-call is not unpleasant, and its more extensive song 
(as in the pairing-season it.warbles, the early harbinger of 
spring, from the roof of a house, or the top of a wall) is wor- 
thy of attention. It builds in various situations,—in a heap 
of stones, upon the ground, in the crevice of a stone-quarry, 
or hole in a wall; and not unfrequently, in the south of Eng- 
