PIEU WAGTAIL. 231 



ward, and some arrive in the northernmost parts of Scotland 

 and in the Outer Hebrides by the middle of March. It is a 

 pleasant sight to see a small group of these birds walking and 

 running with light and graceful steps along the newly turned 

 furrows, on a cold dry morning in spring, when the east wind 

 nips your fingers, and calls the blood into your cheeks. Rooks 

 are scattered over the field, a few Hooded Crows are searching 

 the distant end of the ridge, but they, having little dread of the 

 ploughman, follow close upon his heels, or merely rise before 

 the horses to resume their station when they have passed. At 

 this season they obtain an abundant supply of food, and as the 

 labouring lasts until the warm weather sets in, they need never 

 sutler for lack of larvje or insects. But at all seasons they are 

 fond of rambling along the shores of the sea, and especially of 

 estuaries, lakes and rivers. 



About the middle of April, when they have paired and scat- 

 tered over the country, they begin their preparations for the 

 more important business of the season. Their nests are placed 

 by the side of a river or stream, on a rocky bank, or among the 

 grass, or on a heap of stones, or in a hole in a wall ; and are 

 composed of stems and leaves of withered grasses, mixed with 

 some moss and leaves, and thickly lined with wool and hair ; 

 sometimes also with feathers. One now before me is of a some- 

 what flattened form, rather bulky, and rudely constructed, its 

 external diameter five inches, the internal three and a half. The 

 outer layer is composed of fibrous roots, stems and blades of 

 grasses, intermixed with hair ; the inner is a rude mass of hair 

 of various kinds in tufts : human hair, black, brown, red, and 

 sand-coloured ; hair of dogs, cats, cows, and horses ; hogs' 

 bristles, and some cotton, thread and feathers. The eggs, five 

 or six in number, are greyish- white, spotted all over with grey 

 and brown, their average length nine-twelfths of an inch, their 

 greatest breadth seven and a quarter twelfths. 



Mr Weir has sent me the following notes illustrative of their 

 habits while breeding. 



" In the silver-mine quarry, in the neighbourhood of Bath- 

 gate, in May 1836, a pair of Pied Wagtails built their nest in 

 an old wall, within a few yards of four men, who during the 



