1 84 The Gkev Wagtail. 



excepting that the}' are browner above, with the snperciliar}' stripe and under 

 surface washed with buff. 



The Grey Wagtail is especially fond of the vicinity of water, haunting 

 niouutain streams, rushing rivers, and tumbliug torrents : such localities as the 

 Dipper delights in, form the chosen home of this most elegant of all the Motacillidce. 

 But it is not only seen in the wilder regions, even during the breeding season ; 

 for a few pairs remain to bring up a family even in the most level and prosaic 

 parts of the southern counties ; and, in the autumn aud winter months, it not 

 uucommonl}' becomes a prize of the bird-catchers of Kent and Surrey, who \)y no 

 means regard it as an}' great capture, but willingl}- part with it at prices var3'ing 

 from nincpence to eighteen pence according to the purchaser. 



Early in the j^ear of 1896, our postman informed me that a foreign bird 

 had flown into his house, and asked if I had lost one. I replied in the 

 negative and asked for information as to its form, colouring, etc. Finally he 

 fetched it to show me, and I at once recognized it as a male Grey Wagtail just 

 commencing its change of plumage : the man had been trying to feed it on 

 Canary-seed, and when he discovered that it would need special soft food and 

 insects, he willingly gave it to me. 



The Grey Wagtail, in its actions, flight, song, and expressive notes, much 

 resembles the other forms ; but it is more solitary than either tlie Pied or Yellow 

 Wagtails ; each pair appearing to occupy an area apart from others of its own 

 species ; whereas one may see three or four pairs of either the Pied or Yellow 

 Wagtails within the limits of a comparativel}' small area during the breeding- 

 season. In the Autumn only does the Grey Wagtail appear to be more sociable, 

 because the 3'oung usually accompany their parents until winter is well advanced. 



The Gre}'' Wagtail is double-brooded, usuall}^ commencing its first nest in 

 April, Seebohm says "towards the end of April or early in May," Howard Saunders 

 says "in the latter half of April in England, but earlier in the south of Europe," 

 whilst an observant Scot, John Craig, in a letter to the " Feathered World " (May 

 8th, 1896), insists upon it that in North Ayrshire it "begins to lay in the first 

 week of April " ! Speaking of it in the Parnassus, Seebohm observes " I obtained 

 several nests of fresh-laid eggs in the middle and end of May ; but these appeared 

 to be second broods, as I shot several young birds of the j^ear." 



As a rule this bird selects a rock}' bank, a hole in the wall of an old water- 

 mill, or a crevice in a bank, under an overhanging ledge aud well concealed by 

 rank herbage ; but there is no rule without exceptions, for Seebohm says be once 

 " saw one built in tlic fork of three stems of an alder, close to the ground, almost 

 overlapping tlie river"; whilst I took a nest in Kent (from which we flushed the 



