168 MOTACILLID^. 



the place of individuals belonging to an allied species, 

 who have travelled yet further to the south, and why, 

 on the reappearance of the latter in spring, the first 

 should return to their northern haunts, are questions 

 more easily asked than answered. 



The Grey Wagtail has been repeatedly observed to 

 indulge in a fancy which might well obtain for it the 

 name of "window-bird." The first recorded instance 

 occurs in an early number of the Zoologist,'^ where it is 

 stated, that every morning for a period of between three 

 and four months, from the beginning of October to the 

 end of January, a Grey Wagtail came to the window of 

 a country house as soon as the blinds were drawn up, 

 and darted against the panes of glass, pecking with its 

 beak as if it saw some object. It would then retire, and 

 after a pause repeat the operation, but from what motive 

 no one could conjecture. A lady writes to me from 

 Dewlish House, Dorsetshire : " We are constantly being 

 disturbed by a yellow-breasted Water- Wagtail, which 

 comes tapping at the windows or skylights, from the 

 first streak of light till evening. What may be his object 

 no one can say. It is too cold at present (March) for flies 

 or spiders, and, had there been any hybernating there, he 

 would have eaten them long ago, he comes so frequently. 

 When, on going upstairs, or when sitting down in my 

 room, I hear this loud repeated tapping, it is vain for me 

 to open the window and try to entice him in with crumbs : 

 he does not even notice them. This morning he woke me 

 at about four o'clock. You would have said, ' Some one 

 rapping at my window as a signal that I must get up.' 

 An old servant tells me, ' Ah, 'twere just the same last 

 spring, when the family were in London ; they say that 

 it do mean something.' " 



The Grey Wagtail does not commonly build its nest 

 in the southern counties of England, although instances 

 * Vol. i. pp. 136, 231, 360. 



