122 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



winter. That accomplished ornithologist and Yorkshireman, 

 Marmaduke Tunstall, made an early reference to its wintering 

 in the county, thus : — " Have seen not unfrequently in the 

 north of Yorkshire, in the middle of winter, as well as the 

 Grey. Saw one this year January 8th, in a very hard frost 

 and snow." (Tunst. MS. 1783, p. 71.) 



During the summer months it is a common and generally 

 distributed bird, being the most widely diffused of our 

 Motacillidae, but in the higher portions of the Shire, and 

 particularly in the west and north-west, it is generally reported 

 as being absent in winter. Even in the low-lying districts, 

 and at the coast-line, the numbers met with between November 

 and February are very few in comparison with the hosts 

 which come in March and April, and depart in August and 

 September. Very noticeable features of our coast migration 

 are the vernal and autumnal movements of this bird ; in 

 late February or early March, the first arrivals take place,* 

 in pairs or small parties, and up to the latter part of April 

 the migration of Pied Wagtails is an ordinary event to be 

 looked for in an early morning's walk along the shore. A large 

 migratory flock was observed in Wharfedale in March 1879. 

 In August and September the return passage commences, 

 and at the estuaries of the Tees and Humber large assemblies 

 are daily to be seen in readiness to depart. Should the wind 

 be favourable, by noon the greater portion have passed on. 

 The Migration Reports contain frequent entries, too numerous 

 for mention in detail, of its appearance, in both spring and 

 autumn, at all the Yorkshire coast stations. 



Nidification in the higher localities commences a little 

 later than in the lowlands, and not infrequently the birds 

 make choice of peculiar situations for the nest ; amongst 

 these may be mentioned a railway truck, a cowshed, and a 

 hollow can, while a most curious instance is mentioned in 

 the Zoologist (1863, p. 8844), of a pair near York usurping 

 a nest in an unused chimney that had been occupied for 



* So regular is their return in spring, when bean-sowing commences, 

 as to give rise to a local proverb in North Yorkshire, " Sow beans when 

 the Wagtail returns." 



