Gould remarked 'In the size this elegant species differs but little from the Pied Wagtail, so common in our islands; but a little attention to the colouring of adult examples in their summer dress will, I am sure, convince any one, however sceptical, that the two birds are distinct...' Gould recorded that he had observed a beautiful example while 'walking round one of the bays of Poole Harbour on the 31st March 1861.'

The plant depicted is the Pyrrola minor (Lesser Wintergreen) sent to Gould by the botanist, Rev. H. Harpur Crewe.

DISTRIBUTION: Within this species there are a number of distinct races which overlap with varying degrees of interbreeding. This race of the White Wagtail breeds throughout the Palaearctic from Greenland east and south through continental Europe (occasionally in Britain) to the Urals, Asia Minor as far as northeast China and in Western Alaska. Winters south across southern Eurasia and south to southern Africa, East Indies and the Philippines