GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. 175 
same year, near Newcastle, in Northumberland; and another, 
also a male, was taken in April, 1837, near Finsbury, London. 
In Scotland, one was met with near Leith, and another 
near Edinburgh. 
It is a migratory bird, like the others of its clan, and 
arrives here about the middle of April, departing again in 
September, though some remain until October. 
This species seems, if report speaks true, to frequent small 
streams of water more than the Yellow Wagtail, but it also 
resorts to meadows, downs, and fields. 
The gait of the Grey-headed Wagtail is alike in graceful 
activity to that of the rest of its congeners, and when it 
alights, the same fanning motion of the tail bespeaks its 
family name. It runs with great rapidity, and perches on 
trees, but it seems much the most at home on ‘terra firma,’ 
and to be rather insecure when perched; its feet being more 
adapted for walking and running than for holding on to a 
branch. 
Its food consists of insects of various kinds, and their larve, 
and doubtless any ‘unconsidered trifles’ that are eatable. 
The note is said to be sharper than that of the Yellow 
Wagtail. 
The nest is generally placed on the ground in holes or 
hollows, especially in marshy or moist places, and among the 
projecting roots of trees; also, it is said, in fields and meadows. 
It is formed of grass, moss, or heath, lined with finer por- 
tions of the former materials and hair. 
The eggs are about six in number, whitish in colour, mottled 
nearly all over with yellowish brown and grey. 
Male; length, six inches and a half; bill, black: a white 
band, composed in fact of two, extends from it over the eye, 
and a dark one to the eye; iris, dusky brown; head on the 
crown, bluish grey. The neck has a white band on the 
sides, and on the back it is, as is the nape, bluish grey; 
chin, white; throat and breast, bright yellow, almost white, 
or pale primrose-colour in autumn. Back, yellowish green, 
tinged with brown, the latter colour being on the centre of 
each feather, and the yellowish fading out in autumn. 
The wings extend to within an inch and three quarters of 
the end of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky 
brown, margined with yellowish white; of the primaries, the 
first is scarcely longer than the second, the third a little 
shorter; they and the secondaries and tertiaries are dusky 
