Wagtail sb.

[f. WAG v. + TAIL sb.¹ Cf. prec. and F. hochequeue.]

  1.  A small bird belonging to one of the species of the genus Motacilla or the family Motacillidæ, so called from the continual characteristic wagging motion of the tail. In Great Britain chiefly applied to M. lugubris, ‘the Pied Wagtail of authors’ (Newton), called also water wagtail.

1510.  Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), C vj. Motatula, a wag tayle.

a. 1529.  Skelton, P. Sparowe, 392. The goldfynche, the wagtayle.

c. 1550.  Lloyd, Treas. Health, xxxviii. (Copland), N vij. A special remedy [for the stone] after Auicen, is a wagtayle.

1604.  [? Chettle], Wit of Woman, C 2. I … had my spirit as full of life as a wagtayle, but now the case is altered.

1658.  Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 946. All those Birds called Wagtails (if I am not deceived) live upon Flies.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1768), IV. 24. I always illustrated my Eagleship … by disdaining to make a stoop at wrens, phyl-tits, and wag-tails.

1773.  G. White, Selborne, To Pennant, 9 Nov. Wagtails, all sorts, remain with us all the winter.

1876.  Smiles, Scotch Natur., xiii. (ed. 4), 260. The melancholy note of the Wagtail.

  b.  With qualifying words, indicating native country, color, habits, etc.

  Chiefly species of Motacilla, or species formerly referred to that genus.

1668.  Charleton, Onomast., 90. Motacilla Flava, the Yellow wagtail.

a. 1672.  Willughby, Ornith., II. xvii. (1676), 172. Motacilla cinerea.… The grey Wagtail.

1678.  Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., II. xvii. 237. The white Wagtail.

1783.  Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, II. II. 396–402 [Mentions Collared, Pied, Indian, Yellow, Yellow-headed, Cape or African Wagtail].

1802.  G. Montagu, Ornith. Dict., s.v., Wagtail, Grey…. Provincial. Winter Wagtail. Ibid., Wagtail, Yellow…. Provincial. Spring, or Summer Wagtail.

1863.  Baring-Gould, Iceland, 332. A coppice of birch, among which darted the redwing and white wagtail.

1884.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2), 284. Motacilla ocularis. Siberian Wagtail.

1896.  Newton, Dict. Birds, 1018. The so called Grey Wagtail of Britain.

  2.  Applied to other birds. a. U.S. One of the water-thrushes, Seirrus nævius or S. motacilla (Cent. Dict., 1891).

1868.  J. Burroughs, Wake-robin, viii. (1884), 296. The two species of water-thrush or wagtails, and the oven-bird or wood-wagtail.

  b.  Austral. The black-and-white fantail, Rhipidura tricolor, also called the wagtail flycatcher (Morris, Austral English, 1898). c. dial. The dunlin (Montagu, Ornith. Dict., 1802).

  † 3.  transf. A familiar or contemptuous epithet or form of address applied to a man or young woman. Obs.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, II. ii. 73. This ancient Ruffian Sir, whose life I haue spar’d at sute of his gray-beard…. Spare my graybeard, you wagtaile?

1607.  Middleton, Mich. Term, III. 211. Wagtail, salute them all; they are friends.

1656.  W. Du Gard, trans. Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., 193. A wagtail or busibody desiring to know many things beyond measure, and being unable to bee satisfied with enquiries.

1732.  Fielding, Debauchees, I. i. Good morrow, my little wagtail—my grasshopper, my butterfly.

1783.  O’Keeffe, Birth-Day, 30. To dangle, frisk, and hop about like an impertinent wag-tail as you are.

  † b.  esp. A contemptuous term for a profligate or inconstant woman; hence, a harlot, courtesan.

  Common in the 17th c.

1592.  Lyly, Midas, I. i. If therefore thou make not thy mistress a goldfinch, thou mayst chance to find her a wagtaile.

1608.  Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, II. i. 84. If men be wags, are there not women wagtails?

1635.  Shirley, Traitor, II. i. Join to make her Supple and pliant for the Duke: I hope We are not the first have been advanced by a wagtail.

1694.  Motteux, Rabelais, V. Prognost. v. 237. Hedge-whores, Wagtails, Cockatrices, Whipsters.

1710.  Brit. Apollo, III. No. 25. 3/2. Like Paris with his Gleek of Wagtails on Ida.

  4.  An artificial minnow used in trout-fishing.

1906.  Macm. Mag., Nov., 26. Shortly after there was a pull at the rod from which the wagtail was fishing.

  5.  Comb., as wagtail-family, -minnow; wagtail flycatcher = 2 b; wagtail-warbler = 2 a.

1882.  Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. No. iii. 504. Of the Wagtail family, the Pied Wagtail, and the Grey and Yellow Wagtail, visited the Lake.

1884.  Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds (ed. 2), 309. Siurus nævius. Wag-tail Warbler. Ibid. Siurus motacilla. Large-billed Wagtail Warbler.

1906.  Stephen Gwynn, in Macm. Mag., Nov., 25. I had nothing to show my boatman, Lydon, except a green and silver wagtail minnow which his namesake, the tackle-maker in Galway, had persuaded me to buy.