Northern Observations of Inland Birds 237 



Like the pied wagtail, the grey returns year after year 

 to the same favourite haunts. A pair have lived each 

 summer so long as I can remember in the vicinity of an 

 old barn adjacent to a mountain stream. They may be 

 seen any evening at the proper season perched on the 

 apex of the barn roof, or fluttering along it in pursuit of 

 insects. It is thus that the grey wagtail most often catches 

 the eye of the wayfarer, perched on the top of some old 

 building, and the older it is the better he likes it. For 

 winged insects of many kinds find welcome harbourage 

 and become established among the mosses, rafters, 

 and tiles of ancient buildings, and the wagtails love 

 nothing better than some point at which they can look out 

 upon the bright world, amply surrounded by foods of 

 the kind they need. 



The grey wagtail leaves us in September and does 

 not reappear till mid-February at the earliest. In 

 Scotland it is among our first migrants, and so its first 

 appearance is doubly welcome. 



The yellow wagtail is the least plentiful of the three. 

 It is a summer visitor, arriving in April in the Lowlands. 

 North of Callander I have very rarely seen it, though it 

 appears occasionally in the valley of the Tay and the 

 Dochart. In Scotland it is probably most plentiful in 

 Kirkcudbrightshire, especially about the valley of Loch 

 Ken. 



This bird retains all the characteristics and lively 

 habits of the other two, though it does not haunt our 

 gardens like the pied, nor our streams like the yellow. 

 During the spring and early summer it keeps to the high, 

 rolling, whin country, where it may be seen running 

 about over the short grass. It has a habit of following 

 footpaths when disturbed by a pedestrian, and so, flying 

 and alighting, it may pass ahead for a considerable 

 distance, settling ever on or beside the path, and becoming 



