422 CHAPTER OP CRITICISM. 



though it is like the " conclusion " in Rasselas, a " conclusion in which nothing 

 is concluded." 



Believe me, my dear Sir, 



Yours very truly, 

 Neville Wood, Esq. Edwin Lees. 



CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 



On the Habits of the Wagtails. 



To the Editor of the Naturalist. 



My dear Sir, — On my return home I found your interesting communication 

 of the 17th of July; but the bustle of electioneering, and various other engage- 

 ments, have prevented me from giving you an earlier reply. In the first place, I 

 find, in a " Commentary on Nos. vii. and viii. of The Naturalist" (No. xii., p. 294), 

 that Mr. Blyth expresses some surprise at my remarks relative to the habits of 

 Motacilla flava, Temm. You are of course aware that they were written in 

 reply to the statements at p. 221 of the British Song Birds, that " you must not 

 look for the Spring Oatear near the margins of running streams, <fyc.,"* the fallacy 

 of which was the object of my remark, it being the very situation to which the 

 pairs that annually resort to this locality prefer. In consequence of the inci- 

 dental remark of Mr. Blyth, at p. 294, of the difference of habits between 

 Motacilla flava and M. neglecta, as observed by Mr. Hoy, I was induced the 

 other day, very reluctantly, to shoot two pairs of the species that frequent the 

 banks of our river, in hopes that they might have belonged to the latter species, 

 which, however, I regret was not the case, as they proved, upon examination, to 

 be M. flava, although in one specimen the throat and line above the eye was 

 nearly white ; but the absence of an ash-grey head, similar to that of the Red- 

 backed Shrike, at once distinguished it from M. neglecta. 



1 must say, with deference to the various opinions advanced as to the peculiar 

 habits of M. flava, that they differ very materially from those of M. Yarrellii 

 (Gould); for during the period of nidification, and through the summer, both 

 ere to be found alongside the margins of the river. Perhaps the former, on its 



* As a general rule, and especially in comparison with the habits of the other Wagtails in this 

 respect, we believe the sentence Mr. Salmon has quoted to be perfectly true ; though it cannot be 

 denied that the Spring Oatear may occasionally approach the margins of streams.— Ep. 



