160 
MOTACILLIN^. MOTACILLA. 
with feathers. The eggs, five or six, are greyish-white, spot- i 
ted with grey and brown, their length nine-twelfths, their 
breadth seven-twelfths and a quarter. ! 
It has been proposed, by the Prince of Canino and Mr Gould, 
to name this, our most common Wagtail, Motacilla Yarrelli, \ 
because it difiers in colour from a Wagtail common in the | 
temperate parts of the Continent, and which, it is said, must 
have been that which Linnseus named Motacilla alba. But as 
our bird occurs in Sweden, where Linnaeus lived, as his defi- 
nition agrees precisely with it, and as he refers to our Wil- 
loughby and Bay, who must have described it, I think we ! 
might as well leave its old name of Motacilla alba with it, were 
it not that the bird not being actually whitCy it is somewhat 
incorrect. In a genus like this, where there are so many spe^' | 
cies that are in part white, or grey, or yellow, all names in- 
dicative of such colours might very well be discarded. I am 
not at all convinced, however, that our present bird and the 
Grey-backed Wagtail of the Continent are specifically dis- | 
tinct ; for in every particular, except colour, they agree most 
accurately. | 
White Wagtail. Black-and- White Wagtail. Water Wag- j 
tail. Winter Wagtail. Dish-washer. i 
Motacilla alba, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 331. — Motacilla Yar- | 
relli, Bonap. Temm. Man. d’Ornith. iv. 620. — Motacilla Yar- | 
relli. Pied Wagtail, MacGillivray, Brit, Birds, ii. 225. | 
The species or variety with which this has been confound- 1 
ed, not having with absolute certainty been found in Britain, , 
although I think I have several times met with it, perhaps I 
ought not to be included in this manual ; but its description 
is given in case some of my readers should meet with it. 
94. Motacilla Brissoni. Grby-and -White Wagtail, j 
Male in winter with the forehead, sides of the head, throat, ! 
and lower parts, white ; a black crescent on the fore neck ; ' 
the head, nape, and upper tail-coverts black ; the back and 
sides ash-grey ; wing-coverts blackish, the lower margined and I 
tipped with white ; quills greyish-black, edged with white ; 
tail black, the two lateral feathers white, excepting part of 
their inner webs. Female similar, but with the black less 
extended on the nape, the wing-coverts and crescent on the 
fore neck dusky grey. Male, in summer, with the whole fore 
neck black, the upper parts of a darker grey. Female simi- 
lar, but with the fore neck greyish-black. Young light grey 
above, greyish-white beneath, with a grey crescent on the fore 
neck. 
