GREY WAGTAIL 
83 
GREY WAGTAIL. 
(^Motacilla melanope.) 
This is mainly a bird of the rocky streams of the 
north and west, like the Dipper, but it breeds 
occasionally in some of the southern and midland 
counties, and is not uncommon in winter in most 
of the lowland parts of the country. It is the 
most beautiful of the Wagtails, and one of the 
most beautiful of British birds, in its clear grey 
upper plumage, varied a little with brown, white^ 
and black, its black throat-patch in spring and 
summer, and the bright sulphur-yellow of its 
under parts. Unlike the colouring of most other 
birds, this yellow is brighter towards the tail than 
upon the breast, and the unusual length of this 
characteristic feature of the family is thus made 
doubly conspicuous. The hen has little or no 
black upon the throat, and is slightly duller in 
colour altogether, as are also the young. But all 
alike are wonderfully active and sprightly in their 
movements, and a family of them darting and play- 
ing among the cascades and mossy boulders of a 
hill-country stream on a sunny May morning is as 
beautiful a sight as bird life in Britain has to show. 
The Grey Wagtail is an early nester, the eggs being 
generally laid before the middle of April, so that 
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