By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



181 



"Pied Wagtail." (MotaciUa Yarrellii.) No one can be ignorant 

 of this very coinmoD bird, with its party coloured dress of black and 

 white: its food consists of insects which it finds in running over 

 the grass, or on the margins of streams and lakes, in the shallow 

 waters of which it will wade in search of its tiny prey. Gilbert 

 White also long ago called attention to its habit, which we may 

 constantly verify, of running close up to feeding cows, in order to 

 avail itself of the flies that settle on their legs, and other insects 

 j roused by the trampling of their feet. A pair of these pretty birds 

 return every year to rear their young in a rose tree trained against 

 my house. The provincial name for it here is " Dishwasher." 



" Grey Wagtail." (MotaciUa boarula.) By no means common, 

 but yet generally though sparingly dispersed, and to be found in 

 most localities : it is even more graceful and slender, and has a 

 i still longer tail than the last; its prevailing colours are slate-grey 

 : above, and bright yellow below, with black throat, wings, and tail : 

 it haunts the margins of streams, which it seldom leaves, and is on 

 the whole less sociable and familiar than its pied relative: like the 

 [last, it remains here throughout the winter. 



"Grey-headed Wagtail." (MotaciUa neglecta.) I place this rare 

 i wagtail amongst the Wiltshire birds, on the authority of Mr. 

 i Marsh, who possesses a specimen killed at Marshfield near Chip- 

 Ipenham, in Oct. 1841. It bears so close a resemblance in every 

 Irespect to the next to be described, that it is extremely difficult to 

 pee any difference between them : it may however be distinguished 

 ■by the white line over the eyes, which in Rays Wagtail is yellow ; 

 Band by the grey head, which in M. flava is light olive : moreover,, 

 it is a winter visitant when M. flava has left us. 



" Rays Wagtail." (MotaciUa flava.) This is our common yellow 

 Iwagtail, which flocks here every summer, and leaves us in the 

 ■autumn : it frequents open plantations and arable land, has a 

 ■shorter tail, and is altogether less graceful than the Grey Wagtail : 

 I in colour too it is more yellow; the olive-green of its upper plumage 

 Ipartaking of the yellow tinge, which is so bright and clear below. 



ANTHIDiE (The Pipits). 

 This is the last family of the tooth-billed tribe, and it forms an 



