46 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



MoTAciLLA RATI (Boiiaparte). 



Local Names — Yellow Water-Waf/tail, Yellow Land-stir 

 (sometimes pronounced Lau-nster), Seed-fool, Seed- 

 fore. 



A summer visitor, arriving about the second week in 

 April and leaving in September. From almost all parts 

 of Lancashire it is reported to me as common, even in 

 the neighbourhood of the largest towns, and the culti- 

 vated land is its favourite habitat, it breeding oftenest 

 in corn, hay, and fallow fields. Mr. Hugh P. Hornby, 

 however, thinks its numbers are less than they were six 

 or eight years ago at St. Michael's-on-Wyre, and Mr. T. 

 Jackson also considers it rather rare between the Lune 

 and Morecambe Bay. It derives its local names from 

 appearing at sowing-time in spring, and from its habit 

 of following the plough, and feeding on the insects 

 turned up by the share. Building oftenest among the 

 growing crops, its eggs are not found in anything like 

 proportion to the abundance of the birds, and apart 

 from this, the nest is generally well concealed among 

 the rough clods. It lays five or six eggs, and is rather 

 irregular in its times of nidification, sometimes begin- 

 ning to sit as early as the 26th of April, but usually 

 quite a month later. 



