PIED WAGTAIL 
81 
PIED WAGTAIL. 
{Motacilla lugubris.) 
Water Wagtail, Dishwasher, these names being 
applied to all the species in the family. — A well- 
known and very graceful bird of the stream and 
waterside, as well as of ponds in farmyards and 
gardens. As a species it is with us for the whole of 
the year, though a great deal of migration goes on 
all the same among individuals. No farmyard is 
complete without its pair of Wagtails, and the bird, 
like the Robin, Wren, Spotted Flycatcher, and 
other household species, has the faithful and 
excellent habit of often nesting year after year in 
the same place. The usual situation is in some 
wide-mouthed hole in a tree, wall, rock, or bank ; 
here a rather flat and shallow nest is built of moss, 
dry stems, and roots, lined with hair, fur, and wool. 
The birds begin to build in early or mid-April. 
Four to six eggs are laid, light pink or grey in 
ground-colour, speckled more or less thickly all 
over with black or dark greyish-brown. This is 
one of the smallest birds which run, not hop, and it 
is very graceful to watch as it pursues its insect 
food about the edges of a stream or pool, or in a 
wet, shady roadway after a summer night of rain, 
making quick darts along the ground and little 
