MOTAClI.I.in.V.. 



THE YELLOW WACiTAIL. 

 MoTACii.LA RAii (Bonai)arte). 



The Yellow Wagtail is a regular summer-visitor to the British 

 Islands, arriving early in April, and leaving again in September. In 

 Cornwall and Devon it is usually seen on migration ; but from 

 Somersetshire onwards, it is generally distributed as a breeding species 

 throughout England and Wales, in suitable localities. In Scotland 

 it is locally distributed as far north as the Firths of Forth and Clyde, 

 and it is said to breed in Inverness- and Aberdeenshire ; but 

 recent observers have failed to verify its reported occurrences in 

 Sutherlandshire, the Orkneys, or the Shetlands. To Ireland it is 

 a summer-visitor in small numbers, but is very local ; the district 

 about Lough Neagh, and the vicinity of Dublin, being the only 

 parts in which it is known to breed up to the present time. 



Although the Yellow Wagtail has been obtained as a straggler on 

 Heligoland, Eorkuni, and the coast of Holland, it is only west- 

 ward of Belgium that it is known as a regular migrant, and the 

 Blue-headed Wagtail is still the prevailing species in the breeding- 

 season as far as Dieppe, west of which our Yellow Wagtail is 

 said to predominate. On migration, it visits the south of France 

 and both sides of the Iberian Peninsula with great regularity ; but 

 it is only of rare and accidental occurrence in Italy. Sicily, and 

 Malta, Southward, its migrations extend down the coast of ^^^ Africa 

 as far as the Caboon. A large and isolated colony is said to inhabit 



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