WHITE WAGTAIL. 
221 
INSESSORES. 
DENTIROSTRES. 
MOTACILLIDM. 
PLATE LXXXVIII. 
WHITE WAGTAIL. 
Motacilla lotor. {Rennie.') 
While enumerating the several kinds of Wagtails that are 
found in this country, we mentioned, in page 204, that a 
fifth species, new to British ornithology, had recently been 
added to the list. This species is the Motacilla alba of 
Linn., the common Black and White Wagtail of the 
Continent of Europe. Although long suspected to inhabit 
this country, the existence of the species in England was not 
ascertained until Mr. Bond of Kingsbury, in May 1841, 
procured some specimens on the banks of a reservoir near 
that place. Since that time, many individuals have been 
observed and procured. We ourselves suspected, many years 
ago, that more than one species of Pied Wagtail inhabited 
this country, having observed that those which frequented 
walls, parapets, and roofs of barns, etc., and road-sides in 
high situations, differed in appearance from such as are 
commonly seen by the river-side. In pursuance of this 
inquiry, we procured several specimens, varying much in 
appearance, and sent them to an ornithological friend for 
examination. These, however, proved, or were supposed 
to be the common pied-wagtail of England, in different 
states of age and sex. The attention of naturalists was, how¬ 
ever, awakened to the subject, and the result has been, as 
a 2 
