578 



Notes of the Grey and Spring Wagtails. 



i 



t 



3:£ 



P 



5*=fe 



Chiz chiz 



chizzct chizzet 



it being usually altered as the bird makes a spring in the air. * 

 While the latter part of the note of the summer bird is 

 lower in the scale than the former part ; which is more pro- 

 longed than in the note of the grey wagtail, and is slurred 

 into the latter part something in the following manner : — 



fejJ LI 



? 



ItE: 



t- 



#: 



Che - u 



che - u 



It is also softer and sweeter than the note of the grey wagtail ; 

 which bird, like the water ouzel, is fond of the letter z, I do 

 not, of course, mean it to be understood that these notes are 

 either of the same pitch, or that they bear the same relation to 

 each other that the notes of the birds do, but intend the 

 sketches as rude attempts at illustrating what I could not so 

 well explain in any other way. 



I have been amused with a singular habit which I have 

 noticed in several individuals of the grey wagtail. They were 

 fond of looking at their own images in the windows, and 

 attacking them ; uttering their peculiar cry, pecking, and flut- 

 tering against the glass, as earnestly as if the object they saw 

 had been a real rival, instead of an imaginary one : or, per- 

 haps, they were only admiring themselves, and testifying 

 their satisfaction in this way. It is remarkable that tw^o of 

 these instances were in the autumn, when the same motives 

 for either love or animosity, which would be likely to actuate 

 them in the spring, would no longer exist. The first of these 

 instances occurred when I was a boy, and was repeated daily, 

 and almost hourly, both against the windows of my father's 

 house, and those of that of our neighbour ; who, being rather 

 superstitious, was alarmed about it, and came to consult my 

 mother on the subject. She said there was a bird, which, her 

 brother had told her, was a barley-bird (Mbtacilla flava), 

 which was continually flying against her windows ; and, as 



* Persons conversant with the habits of birds will readily comprehend 

 me : for the sake of those who are not, I will just observe that the flight 

 of all the wagtails is very peculiar ; being a succession of great leaps in 

 the air (if I may be allowed the expression), which form a series of curves ; 

 the bird rising considerably at the commencement of each effort, and sinking 

 again at the close. [See, in IV. 418., Mr. Main's remarks on the mode 

 of flight of the families " of L6xia> Pyrrhula, Emberiza, and i-Vingilla."] 



