in ornithology, a genus of birds of the order of passerines; distinguished by a straight beak of a subulated figure, and a lacerated tongue. There are 49 species belonging to this genus; the most remarkable are,

1. The alba, or white wagtail, frequents the sides of ponds and small streams, and feeds on insects and worms. The head, back, and upper and lower side of the neck, as far as the breast, are black; in some the chin is white, and the throat marked with a black crescent: the breast and belly are white; the quill-feathers are dusky; the coverts black, tipped and edged with white. The tail is very long, and always in motion. Mr Willoughby observes, that this species shifts its quarters in the winter; moving from the north to the south of England during that season. In spring and autumn it is a constant attendant on the plough, for the sake of the worms thrown up by that instrument.

2. The flava, or yellow wagtail, migrates in the north of England, but in Hampshire continues the whole year. The male is a bird of great beauty: the breast, belly, thighs, and vent-feathers, being of a most vivid and lovely yellow: the throat is marked with some large black spots; above the eye is a bright yellow line; beneath that, from the bill, across the eye, is another of a dusky hue; and beneath the eye is a third of the same colour: the head and upper part of the body is of an olive-green, which brightens in the coverts of the tail; the quill-feathers are dusky; the coverts of the wings olive-coloured; but the lower rows dusky, tipped with yellowish white; the two outmost feathers of the tail half white; the others black, as in the former. The colours of the female are far more obscure than those of the male: it wants also those black spots on the throat. It makes its nest on the ground, in corn-fields: the outside is composed of decayed stems of plants, and small fibrous roots; the inside is lined with hair: it lays five eggs.

3. The regulus, or gold-coloured wren, is a native Plate of Europe, and of the corresponding latitudes of Asia and America. It is the least of all the European birds, weighing only a single drachm. Its length is about four inches and an half; and the wings, when spread out, measure little more than six inches. On the top of its head is a beautiful orange-coloured spot called its crest, which it can hide at pleasure; the margins margins of the crest are yellow, and it ends in a pretty broad black line; the sides of the neck are of a beautiful yellowish green; the eyes surrounded with a white circle; the neck and back of a dark green mixed with yellow; the breast of a dirty white; the tail composed of 12 feathers of a brown colour, an inch and an half long, but not forked. In America it associates with the titmice, running up and down the bark of lofty oaks with them, and collecting its food in their company, as if they were all of one brood. It feeds on insects lodged in their winter dormitories in a torpid state.

4. The sialis, or blue-bird, is a native of most parts of North America; and is about the bigness of a sparrow. The eyes are large; the head and upper part of the body, tail, and wings, are of a bright blue, excepting that the ends of the feathers are brown. The throat and breast are of a dirty red. The belly is white. It flies swiftly, having very long wings; so that the hawk generally pursues it in vain. It makes its nest in holes and trees; resembles our robin-red breast in its disposition, and feeds only on insects.

5. The sutoria, or taylor-bird, is a native of the East-Indies. It is remarkable for the art with which it makes its nest, seemingly in order to secure itself and its young in the most perfect manner possible against all danger from voracious animals. It picks up a dead leaf, and sews it to the side of a living one: its slender bill is the needle, and its thread is formed of some fine fibres; the lining is composed of feathers, gossamer, and down: its eggs are white, the colour of the bird light-yellow; its length three inches; and its weight only three sixteenths of an ounce, so that the materials of the nest and its own size are not likely to draw down a habitation depending on so slight a tenure.