PIED WAGTAIL. 
213 
quill-featliers are black, narro-wly edged with white; the 
tertials and the two lower rows of wing-coverts are also 
black, broadly edged with pure white; the lesser wing-coverts 
are entirely black. The flanks are slate-colour, softened 
into the white of the belly : the forehead is white, also the 
space around the eyes, the ear-coverts, the chin, and upper 
part of the breast; all the under parts below the black crescent 
are also white. The two outer tail-feathers on each side are 
white, except a portion of the inner web towards the base, 
which is occupied by a wedge-shaped black mark. The beak, 
legs, and feet are black, the iris very deep brown, appearing 
almost black. 
The summer plumage of the adult male has less white 
than in winter: the white edges on the quill-feathers have 
disappeared, and the edges of the tertials and coverts are 
narrower. The back is entirely black, and the black cres¬ 
cent has extended itself upwards to the chin. A narrow 
white band borders the side of the breast, but does not 
extend so far as to divide the black head from the crescent, 
which are always in this species united in mature plumage. 
The female differs from the male chiefly in the colour of 
her back and scapulars, which are never black, but pale ash- 
grey, and her quill-feathers incline to dusky. 
The food of this species is various; in summer it consists 
of winged insects which they find among the grass, or spring 
after as they rise from it; they also frequent the shallow 
borders of rivers for the small fry of fish, which they catch 
with great dexterity ; besides which they feed upon some 
species of water limpet, fragments of which may be found in 
their stomachs. 
The upper figure in Plate 85 represents an adult female in 
summer plumage. 
