. A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory: including their organization, habits, and relations; remarks on classification and nomenclature; an account of the principal organs of birds, and observations relative to practical ornithology .. . of streams and lakes. While searching for foodthey w^alk with alternate steps, often run with great celerity,and occasionally pursue an insect on wing. Their flight is rapid,performed in beautiful, strongly marked curves, and affordinga most typical example of the undulatory variety. On settling,they vibrate as if on a pivot, spread out and con
. A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory: including their organization, habits, and relations; remarks on classification and nomenclature; an account of the principal organs of birds, and observations relative to practical ornithology .. . of streams and lakes. While searching for foodthey w^alk with alternate steps, often run with great celerity,and occasionally pursue an insect on wing. Their flight is rapid,performed in beautiful, strongly marked curves, and affordinga most typical example of the undulatory variety. On settling,they vibrate as if on a pivot, spread out and contract their tail,keeping it considerably inclined upwards. Their notes are short,shrill, rather weak, and frequently repeated. They nestle amongthe herbage near water, or among stones, form a rather bulkynest of slender stalks and blades of grass, lining it with hair,and deposit from four to six spotted eggs. They moult in autumn like the other genera of this family ;and in spring undergo a partial change of plumage, the feathersof the head, neck, and body being renewed then, and partiallyaltered in colour. Three species are met with in this country :the Grey-and-White Wagtail, the Pied or Black-and-whiteWagtail, and the Grey-and-yellow 221 MOTACILLA ALBA. THE GREY-AND-WHITEWAGTAIL. GREY WAGTAIL. CINEREOUS WAGTAIL. Motacilla alba. Linn. Syst. Nat- I. La Lavandiere. Motacilla. Briss, Ornith. IIL 461- Motacilla alba. Gmel. Syst. Nat. I. 960. Motacilla alba. Lath. Ind. Orn. IL 501. Motacilla cinerea. Gmel. Syst. Nat. I. 961. Motacilla cinerea. Lath. Ind. Orn. II. 502. Cinereous Wagtail. Motacilla cinerea, Steph. Shaws Zool. X. 550. Bergeronette grise. Motacilla alba. Temm. Man. dOrn. I. 255. Male in winter with the forehead, sides of the head, throat andlower parts lohite; a hlack crescent on the fore-neck ; the head,nape, and upper tail-coverts hlack; the back and sides ash-gret/ ;wing-coverts blackish, the larger margined and tipped with white;quills greyish-blac
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidhistoryofbritish02macg, booksubjectbirdsg
