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WAGTAIL (Wagsterd and Wagstyrt, 15th ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 245 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WAGTAIL (Wagsterd and Wagstyrt, 15th century fide T. Wright, Vol. Vocabularies, ii. 221, 253; Uuagtale, Turner, 1544, p. 53)  , the popular name for birds of the subfamily Motacillidae, which, together with the Anthinae (see PIPIT), form the passerine
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family Motacillidae . The pied wagtail Motacilla lugubris is a
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common and generally distributed
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species in the
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British Islands, and common through-out
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northern
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Europe, but migrating southwards over a relatively narrow range in winter . The white wagtail, M.
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alba of
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Linnaeus, has a wide range in Europe,
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Asia and Africa, visiting England almost yearly, and chiefly differing from the ordinary British in its lighter-coloured tints—the cock especially having a clear grey instead of a black back . Three other species occur in England, but the subfamily with several genera and very many species ranges over the Old
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World, except
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Australia and Polynesia, whilst the
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Asiatic species reach North-West
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America . Wagtails are generally parti-coloured birds, frequenting streams and stagnant
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water, and feeding on seeds,
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insects,
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worms, small molluscs and crustaceans . The
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bill is thin and elongated, and the tail is very long . The nests are made of
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moss, grass and roots, with a lining of hair and feathers; four to six eggs are laid, bluish white or brown, or yellowish with spots and markings . The genus Motacilla (an exact rendering of the
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English " wagtail," the Dutch Kwikstaart, the
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Italian Codatremola and other similar words), which, as originally founded by Linnaeus, contained nearly all the " soft-billed " birds of early English ornithologists, was restricted by various authors in succession, following the example set by Scopoli in 1769, until none but the wagtails remained in it . (A .

End of Article: WAGTAIL (Wagsterd and Wagstyrt, 15th century fide T. Wright, Vol. Vocabularies, ii. 221, 253; Uuagtale, Turner, 1544, p. 53)
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