SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
27 
of S. Arctica are smallest. The two species do not associate together. See 
Northern Zoology , Vol. II., p. 414. 
Plates XIII. and XIV.—To the separation of the two species of Wagtail 
which respectively constitute the subjects of these plates, from Motacilla , and 
their formation into the new genus Budgies , we are yet more strongly opposed 
than Mr. Gould. Such innovation was, we know, first proposed by the illustrious 
Cuvier. But we bend not to the authority of names even as great as his. The 
facts of unerring Nature, not the whims and fantasies of erring and instable Man, 
are the foundation on which we would seek to erect the imperishable edifice 
consecrated to science, and only worthy of its destination when so erected. What 
are the characters which, in the opinion of the French zoologist, justify this 
deviation from the track of his able predecessor, Bay ?—The greater length and 
less curved figure of the posterior claw; by which the (so-named) Budgies is 
connected with the Pipits and the Larks,—Farlouses et Alouettes, Fr.—Anthi 
et Alaudw, L. See Begne Animal , Vol. I., p. 391. Now, such peculiarity of 
structure we contend, although furnishing a good sub-generic, is not of sufficient 
weight to constitute, alone, a generic character: more especially as all the four 
British species otherwise exhibit a close resemblance to each other in structure. 
The first of Mr. Gould’s plates represents two figures, male and female, of the 
Yellow Wagtail, Motacilla (Budytes) fiava, —Bergeronnette Printaniere, Fr. — 
Cutrettola di-Primavera, It. —Gelbe Bachstelze, G .; the second ,—corresponding 
figures of the Grey-headed Wagtail, M. ( Budgies ) neglecta ,—a species hitherto 
confounded with the preceding; from which it is principally to be distinguished 
by the bluish ash-colour of the head and nucha, and by the existence of two 
white lines passing transversely, one above, and the other below, the eye. In its 
manners, M. neglecta , described by Temminck under the specific designation of 
fiava , is said to differ widely, in its manners, from the real Yellow Wagtail 
of British ornithologists. However this be, the epithet neglecta is highly 
objectionable; and should be sentenced to perpetual exile from the domains of 
science. A more appropriate one will presently suggest itself to us. 
According to our views of ornithological arrangement, the fourjlritish Wagtails 
may be distributed in the following order:— 
Genus, Motacilla. 
a. Hind claw moderately long and curved. 
1. M. alba — melanoleuca. 2. M. boarula. 
b. Hind claw elongated and less curved. 
3. M. fiava. 4. M. poliocephala ? 
Even Dr. Fleming himself— History of British Animals —retains the Yellow 
Wagtail in the genus Motacilla. 
Sand Grous, Pterocles arenarius^ -Ganga unibande, AV.—Bingel Waldhuhn, 
