OTES 



UNUSUAL NESTING-SITES OF PIED WAGTAIL. 



Since several instances have recently been recorded of the 

 utilization of disused nests of other birds by the Pied Wagtail 

 {antea. pp 185, 225, 246), it maj^ perhaps be of interest to 

 add another. This occurred in May, 1912, near Tenterden, 

 Kent, where I s|)ent some time photographing the birds 

 feeding their young, the nest being built inside that of a 

 Blackbird of the previous year, situated about seven feet 

 from the ground and about half way up a pyramidal heap of 

 poles near some farm buildings. The Wagtails nest within 

 a few yards of the same spot annually and generally in the 

 top or side of a faggot-stack. N. F. Ticehurst. 



EvER^ year I find both Pied and Gre^" Wagtails utilizing old 

 nests —usually of Blackbirds or Thrushes. Last year a Pied 

 W'agtail built on the remains of a House-Sparrow's nest in an 

 elm at Felsted. and another pair used a Robin's nest \ery 

 soon after the young Robin* had left. Very often the Wag- 

 tails seize a nest that has only recently been vacated by the 

 young of some other bird. One such nest was in an ever- 

 green bush where I lived in the town of Oswestry. The 

 Wagtails took possession of a Blackbird's nest and built 

 inside it, covering an addled egg. They had eggs within five ■ 

 days of the young Blackbirds leaving the nest. There was 

 an addled egg in their first set and they added a second lining 

 to cover it and reared a second brood in the same nest. I 

 have frequently seen a Pied Wagtail s nest oil the Welsh 

 Border in the remains of a Dipper "s nest. 



Last April I found two Grey Wagtails (Jf . c„ cinerea) nesting 

 in Dippers' nests that had been robbed and partly demolished 

 by country boys J. H. OwEi^. 



[Sufficient evidence has now been published to show that 

 the utilization of an old nest of another species bj^ the Pied 

 Wagtail is so frequent that it may be considered almost a 

 normal habit of the bird. — Eds.] 



ERYTHRIS^I IN EGGS OF GREY WAGTAIL AND 

 COMMON TERN. 



Grev Wagtail {Motacilia c. cinerea). In April, 1905, the 

 late Capt. C. S. Meares took a clutch of five eggs near Cilmeri, 

 Breconshire, whicli were as pink as average Robin's eggs 



