edge on the inner web; cliin, throat, and neck in front, and
on the sides, black, which, uniting with the same colour on
the anterior part of the wings and scapulars, surrounds the
white on the side of the neck ; breast, belly, and under tail-
coverts, white ; sides of the body and flanks slate-grey ; legs,
toes, and claws, black; the hind claw rather short.
The whole length of a male bird seven inches and a half.
Prom the carpal joint to the end of the wing three inches
and three eighths ; the first three primaries very nearly equal
in length, but the first of the three rather the longest in the
wing.
The adult female is half an inch shorter in the whole
length than the male ; and only differs from him, at this
season, in having the back lead-grey, mottled with darker
feathers, almost as black as those on the back of the male at
this season.
In the adult male and female in winter plumage, the black
colour of the head and nape of the neck does not extend to
the back, which is then nearly uniform ash-grey ; chin and
throat white ; the black colour on the front of the neck only
appearing in the form of a gorget or crescent, the horns of
which are directed upwards to the back part of the ear-
coverts. The darker colour of the plumage of the breeding-
season is obtained in the spring by an alteration taking place
in the colour of the feathers, not by losing the old feathers
and gaining new ones: the annual moult takes place in
autumn.
Young birds of the year resemble the parent birds in their
winter plumage, except that the head is not black, but ash-
grey, like the back ; the cheeks and ear-coverts are tinged
with yellow, and the upper part of the breast mottled with
greyish black.
The White Wagtail of the Continent in its summer
plumage has the top of the head and the nape of the neck
black ; chin, throat, and chest also black; these colours, however,
do not unite on the sides of the neck before the shoulder;
but the white colour passes downwards and backwards between
the two black patches, and is lost in the ash-grey
colour of the back and scapulars; the sides and flanks in this
bird are also of a lighter grey colour. In other respects the
two species are much alike.
In their winter dress, as observed by Mr. Gould, there
is less difference in the colour of the plumage.
The marked specific distinction between these two Wagtails,
is, that the beak of our Pied Whgtail is broader than
that of the White Wagtail throughout its whole length from
the point to the more dilated base, and that while our pied
bird changes on the back from ash-grey to black in the breeding
season, the back of the white bird remains as light in
colour as it is in winter; even the back of the female of our
pied bird changes, and is decidedly much darker in summer
than the back of the White Whgtail at the same season.
The figure at page 362 represents the male of our Pied
Wagtail in summer plumage : the figures at the bottom of
page 865 represent parts of the same species in summer and
winter plumage : the figures below represent the same parts
at the same seasons in the Continental White Wagtail, and
which I have very little doubt will be occasionally found in
this country.