544 motacillid.t:. 



it formerly was not — the roots of those vegetables sheltering 

 the eggs or larvae of insects which it picks out ; and so 

 dependent is it on this supply of food that when, after 

 the drought of 1868, the crop failed, no Wagtails remained, 

 though the season was unusually mild. Generally it is far 

 more numerous in summer than in winter, and is gregarious 

 in its habits when on passage from one locality to another, 

 small flocks being often, and large flocks occasionally, seen 

 about the vernal and autumnal periods of change. Examples 

 have been met with in winter in Portugal and the south of 

 Spain.* The Strickland collection contains a specimen from 

 Tangier ; but there is nothing to shew that it ever wanders 

 further. In the south of France the evidence of its occur- 

 rence is unsatisfactory, but it is known, as has been said, in 

 the north as a spring-visitor, though whether it ever stays to 

 breed is doubtful. In Belgium it appears rarely, and then 

 either at the beginning or end of winter. In Holland it 

 would seem to occur more often, and, according to Heer 

 Crommelin (Nederl. Tijdschr. iii. p. 245), to pair with 

 M. alba. It has been frequently observed on passage, and 

 that in large numbers, at Heligoland, and is said to have 

 been killed in Denmark. On the west coast of Sweden and 

 Norway it is an occasional, perhaps an annual, straggler — 

 possibly even at times stopping to breed, and it has been 

 met with as high as Bergen. It has never been recorded 

 from the Faeroes or Iceland. 



The movements of the Pied Wagtail have been noticed by 

 many writers, but by none more carefully than Mr. Knox, 

 who, having lived for some years on the coast of Sussex, was 

 singularly well placed for the observation of migratory birds 

 in general, and paid much attention to them. A great deal 

 of what he has so happily recorded with respect to the 

 present bird applies equally to many others, so that his 

 remarks deserve more than ordinary consideration, serving 

 as they do to throw light on the whole of that mysterious 

 subject and being those of an unusually watchful and accurate 



* Kiister (Isis, 1835, p. 220) said that it was not rare in Sardinia, but from 

 the silence of Sigg. Cara and Salvadori he was most likely mistaken. 



