688 Zoology^ 



catcher and every bird-nesting boy, ornithologists should 

 have been so long undecided on the subject. I shall only 

 mention, in conclusion, that the pipit, like the titlark, has a 

 very agreeable warble, and sings hovering over its nest. I 

 am, &c. — Ornis. Wandsworth, Surrey, Dec, 1. 18S1. 



The Alpine Warbler [Accentor alpinus) met *with in Eng- 

 land, — Sir, A few years since, I shot a small bird in a 

 garden on the borders of Epping Forest, which I did not 

 know, nor could any one tell me what it was, till within a 

 fortnight a gentleman requested me to allow him to take it 

 to London. He accordingly went to Mr. Gould, Naturalist, 

 20. Broad Street, Golden Square ; who sends me an account 

 of its being the Accentor alpinus, or Alpine warbler, the 

 only one known to have been killed in England, with the 

 exception of one, in Dr. Thackeray'ss garden, at Cambridge. 

 If you think this worth inserting in your Magazine, you 

 are at liberty to use it ; or if any of your correspondents 

 would like to see it, they can, by calling at my nursery, 

 Wood Street, Walthamstow. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — James 

 Pamplin. Whip* s Cross Nursery, Walthamstow, Jan. 27, 1832. 



yiotacilla Sylvia Lin. [Qurruca cinerea Brisson], White- 

 throat. — This little warbler made it appearance in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Teignmouth, this year (1831), as early as the 

 SOth of March. It generally arrives about the middle of 

 April. — W, R, Jordan, Lugehay, Teignmouth, Dec. 4<. 183L 



The Spring, or Yellow, Wagtail (M.otacilla Jldva). — This 

 active and graceful little bird has often afforded me much 

 amusement, whilst watching its sedulous attendance on cows, 

 when they are feeding ; keeping within a foot or less of the 

 heads of the animals. I have seen as many as seven, which 

 I concluded were the parents and their offspring, running 

 and dodging just before the cows' eyes, apparently catching 

 some small insects. T suppose that the cows, in biting off 

 the grass, disturbed certain small flies (which are the favour- 

 ite food of this bird) lodged in the grass, and which, as soon 

 as they arose, were entrapped by the watchful wagtail before 

 they could secure their retreat into the grass. We thus see it 

 demonstrated how one animal is subservient to the well-being 

 of another ; as it is evident that the bird could not secure 

 its prey, which is far down in the herbage, until aroused by 

 its friend the cow, which in this instance may not inaptly be 

 termed the " wagtail's provider." 



The Pied Wagtail [MotaciUa Ibtor Rennie, M. alba Linn.) 

 may, I think, as far as some of its habits go, be classed 

 amongst the waders ; for a pair of these birds build regularly 

 in an old hovel, very near a shallow rivulet which runs across 

 the turnpike road, and are in the habit of running in it up 



