50 THE BIRDS OF COOKHAM AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
of the present bird in Buckinghamshire, it will doubtless interest 
many of my readers.* 
Tho present species makes its appearance at Cookham about 
the middle of September, and is by no means rare during some 
winters. The first Mr. Briggs noticed this year (1868) was on 
the 10th of September, but it is not until the end of the month 
that any number ofthem are to be seen. The Grey Wagtail is 
one of my favourite birds, and I always take great delight in 
observing it in its native state. I have often watched two 
or three together running swiftly along the sheeting of Miss 
Fleming’s weir at Cookham, catching flies and picking up little 
insects from the green weed accumulated on the piles. Their 
motions are full of grace, and it is impossible to imagine a more 
elegant and modest little bird. The bright yellow on the lower 
parts of the back and abdomen is gently relieved by the soft 
grey of the back, while the two exterior tail-feathers, which are 
pure white, are always very conspicuous, as the bird un- 
dulates its tail upwards and downwards. The note of the Grey 
Wagtail is always more sweet and striking than that ofits con- 
geners, and when flying, the ‘‘dips” through the air are 
more marked than in the flight of the Pied Wagtail. Its form 
is also more slender, and its head, when seen in a recently killed 
bird or a skin, appears very small and out of proportion. 
I have now lying before me specimens of the present species 
in summer and winter dress, those in the former state of plumage 
* “During a trout excursion in June last,” writes Mr, Gould, ‘to 
Chenies, in Buckinghamshire, Mr. John Dodd called my attention to a 
species of Wagtail which had built its nest in a rose bush trained against a 
wall in his garden. Judge my surprise when I there found a beautiful 
black-throated I. boarula + sitting on four eggs, and so fearless of obser- 
vation as almost to admit of my touching her. My. Dodd permitted me to 
take the eggs for my son’s collection; and a Greenfinch having a nest close 
by, four of its eggs were transferred to that of the Wagtail; they were 
hatched in due time, and the young partially reared by their foster-parents. 
The circumstance above detailed induced me to seek for others, and I met 
with a second pair the next day at Elliot’s Mill, about two miles and a half 
higher up the stream. I further ascertained, that this species was not un- 
common as a Summer resident, and that the Yellow Wagtail, Budytes flava,t 
so universally dispersed over the country, was seldom or eyer seen there,” 
* Vide Jard. Contr. to Orn., 1849, p. 135, 
+ MW. sulphurea of this paper. 
{ Budytes campestris of this paper. 
