MOTACILLID. 135 
common in these parts, where it is vulgarly known 
as the ‘‘ Dish-washer.” It is resident with us all the 
year, and I cannot see that there is any great addi- 
tion to its numbers at any period of the year, except 
late in the summer, after the young birds are out, 
at which time our lawns and croquet-grounds are 
covered with them; and very pretty and amusing it 
is to watch the old birds feeding the young with flies 
and insects, in pursuit of which they may be seen 
running quickly in all directions, and occasionally 
flying up after a fly too high to be caught by a 
jump. In the winter, when the sheep are in 
turnips, the Pied Wagtails rather desert the lawns 
and croquet-grounds, and betake themselves to the 
sheep-fold, where they may be seen busily engaged 
in their usual occupation of catching flies and other 
insects. Minnows are mentioned by Yarrell as part 
of the food of these birds; but I have never myself 
seen them attempt to take any kind of fish: they 
appear to me to confine themselves to insects and 
worms, in search of which last they may often be 
seen following the plough. 
The nest of the Pied Wagtail is placed in a 
variety of different places, such as the ivy on, or a 
hole in, an old wall, or in the side of a wood or hay- 
rick. Mr. Jesse, in his ‘Gleanings in Natural His- 
tory,’ mentions one very peculiar place: as it is in 
a workshop of a manufactory in the town of Taunton, 
I will quote what he says at length :—“ The room 
N2 
