324 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



WAGTAIL, YELLOW. 



Description of Parent Birds. — Length about six 

 and a half inches. Bill moderately long, straight, 

 slender, and black. Irides hazel. Crown, nape, 

 back, and scapulars light olive. Wing-coverts and 

 primaries darkish-brown, the first-named being 

 tipped, and the tertials bordered and tipped with 

 greyish-yellow. Upper tail-coverts olive ; tail-quills 

 brownish-black, with the exception of the two outer 

 feathers, which are white, streaked with black on 

 the inner web. Over the eye and ear-coverts is a 

 line of golden-yellow. Chin, throat, breast, belly, 

 and vent a bright golden yellow. Legs, toes, and 

 claws black. 



The female is much less handsome, her head and 

 back being darker, and the yellow of her breast 

 and under-parts not nearly so bright. 



Situation and Locality. — On the ground, in the 

 shelter of a tuft of grass, heather, or coarse herbage ; 

 sometimes behind the long grass of an overhanging 

 bank, well hidden. I know several places in the 

 North of England where pairs breed year after 

 year with unbroken regularity. In grass meadows, 

 pastures, commons, and other suitable places, pretty 

 generally throughout England, except Cornwall and 

 Devonshire. It is much more numerous, according 

 to my observations, in the north than in the south 

 and east ; also in the south of Scotland, and, to a 

 very limited extent, in Ireland. The bird is very 

 wary, and the nest difficult to find. I have watched 

 a pair for three or four hours through my binoculars, 

 and when able to locate the nest pretty closely have 

 still failed to find it. 



Materials. — Dead grass, fibrous roots, and moss, 



