42 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



chooses for incubation, and to leave them iinlined, still 

 remains without satisfactory explanation. Writing in 

 the Mag. of Nat. Hist, for 1830 and 1832, Mr. Thomas 

 Garnett says that, on the 2nd of May in the latter year, 

 he knew of a dozen cock-nests, which had remained in 

 the same state since the middle of April, other nests, 

 found about the same time, having young. If the first 

 nest be taken, the birds wdll occasionally take possession 

 of a cock-nest, as he has found such an one, after 

 remaining unfinished for several weeks, fitted with a 

 lining and used. He once pulled out a nest already 

 lined, and the birds immediately occupied an adjacent 

 cock-nest, and a lot of young, which had left their 

 original home, were found roosting in a similar one hard 

 by. I have usually found the nest which is preferred 

 more carefully concealed than the cock-nests, but not 

 invariably so, and the materials are often quite out of 

 unison with the surroundings. The song of the Wren 

 is the most powerful I know, relatively to the size of the 

 bird, and is not rarely heard in winter. The six, or 

 sometimes seven, eggs are laid the first days of May, 

 and the nest is always lined with feathers if these are 

 plentiful, if not, with cow's hair mixed. 



FAMILY MOTACILLID^.— GENUS MOTACILLA. 

 WHITE WAGTAIL. 



MOTACILLA ALBA, LinUffiUS. 



The White Wagtail probably occurs much more fre- 

 quently in Lancashire, as well as other places, than is 

 supposed, its great similarity to the Pied Wagtail making 

 it very liable to be overlooked by the ordinar}^ observer. 



