YELLOW WAGTAIL 



537 



ear-coverts brown, and the throat and breast fawn, the latter being, 

 however, marked with obscure spots. 



The distribution of this species is not very different from that of 

 the pied wagtail, although it extends eastward into Russia and 

 Turkestan. It is the birds from the latter countries which probably 

 migrate in winter to East Africa, whence they wander south as far as 

 the Transvaal, but the western birds find their winter-home on the 

 Atlantic side of Africa. To the British Isles this handsome species is 

 a summer-visitor, arriving in April and stay- 

 ing till September. Occasionally a belated 

 individual remains longer, one having been 

 recorded from the Isle of Man in December 

 1 90 1. Although common during the 

 summer-months in the low meadows of the 

 Thames valley and other parts of the south- 

 east of England, in the south-western counties 

 it appears to be only known on migration. 

 Its breeding-range includes, however, most 

 other parts of England as well as the south 

 of Scotland, but in Ireland the species is very 

 local, nesting only round Lough Neagh in 

 Ulster, and Loughs Carrib and Mask in 

 Connaught. 



The haunts of this wagtail are chiefly 

 low meadows, and on arrival, flats by the 

 seashore, where these canary-like birds con- 

 gregate in flocks, before breaking up into 

 pairs for the breeding-season. At the con- 

 clusion of the latter, they again collect in companies, and often roost in 

 reed-beds. The four to six eggs, which are very variable in colour, 

 being sometimes uniformly olive-brown, in other cases pinkish brown, 

 and in yet others mottled, are laid in a nest of rootlets or dry grass, 

 carefully concealed in a hole in the grass, or sheltered by a stone, or 

 even occasionally placed on a bank. 



If it be permissible to regard the yellow wagtail in the light of a 

 local race of the blue-headed species, the former should be known as 

 M. flava rail and the latter as M. fiava typica. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL (FKMALE). 



