VOL. VI.] NOTES. 17 



must have concealed me from the birds fairly Avell, for on three, 

 if not four occasions, they passed so close that it was impossible 

 to confuse or wrongly detect the colouring of each part of 

 the plumage of all three. So distinctly white Avere the eye- 

 stripes, chins, and the patches behind the ear-coverts of the 

 Yellow Wagtail's companions, that I had no difficulty in 

 identifying them as either female or immature Blue-headed 

 Wagtails. Certain pale brown feathers on the breast of one 

 of the individuals again suggested adolescence. From each 

 shoulder, extending obliquely and converging to a point on 

 the upper-breast, was a broad but broken arrow or V-shape 

 formed of the brown feathers, the area above the point being 

 white and that below it grading from a pale to a deeper shade 

 of yellow, 



I feel and maintain, as other ornithologists do, that our 

 lack of knowledge, with strict reference to the frequency or 

 otherwise with which it makes use of this apparently its 

 westernmost migrational route, is due not so much to the want 

 of reliable observers in that part of the country as to the fact 

 that the species, particularly the female bird, must often 

 be confused with its yellow congener, to which it bears a close 

 superficial resemblance. Richard W. Jones. 



GREY WAGTAIL NESTING IN EAST SUSSEX. 

 Year after year, in spring and summer, Avhen I go a-fishing 

 in the streams that run over the ironstone rocks of Dallington 

 Forest, and in the parish of Burwash, I come across pairs of 

 Grey Wagtails (Motacilla h. boarula). I think they are resident 

 or partially migratory. I saw Grey Wagtails about the 

 streams towards the end of February this year (1912). The 

 streams where I meet with these birds ripple over rock-ledges 

 and gravel, and are well suited to their habits. I have looked 

 casually for nests year after year, but never succeeded in 

 seeing one till this spring. My attention was draAAn to it 

 by the woodman on Lady Margaret Cecil's property of Oak 

 down in the parish of Burwash, who, when cutting faggot-wood 

 on the side of a ravine bordering a rivulet, disturbed the hen 

 bird from her nest. This was, according to the Avoodman, 

 on April 12th, and there were four or five eggs in the nest. 

 I visited the spot on the 19th : there were doAATi-clad nestlings. 

 The nest was cai*efully concealed, placed on a piece of jutting 

 rock, with the bank and tree-roots overhanging. The parent 

 birds were very shy. Though I was hidden fifty yards from 

 the nest, the hen kept flying round with food, on the tops 

 of large oak trees, and I coukl only follow her movements by 

 her notes — " Zis zi," sharply uttered but more feeble than those 



