YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
RAYS WAGTAIL. 
Motacilla flava, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 
Budgtes Rayi, PRINCE OF MusicNano. MEYER. 
Motacilla—A Wagtail, Flava—Yellow. 
THIS is a common species with us in summer, but most so 
in the southern and midland counties. It is not numerous 
either in Ireland or Scotland. In the Orkneys it has been 
observed several times. One was shot near Kirkwall, by Mr. 
Ranken, in the autumn of 1845; and another was seen near 
the same place on the 25th. of September, 1847. 
Water courses, water meadows, and such lke localities, are 
the choice of the Yellow Wagtail; but it also, like the others 
of the genus to which it belongs, frequents at times, and 
even more than they do, very dissimilar places, such as open 
downs and pastures, ploughed fields, and various other situa- 
tions. On their first arrival I have often noticed them in 
numbers in fields that had been flooded, the saturation of 
moisture doubtless bringing many insects within reach. They 
have been observed perching on the stems of plants in quest 
of these. They not unfrequently appear on the lawns in 
front of houses. 
The Yellow Wagtail migrates hither in summer, and leaves 
us again in time to avoid the hyemal blasts, which those 
which stay behind must feel. It arrives about the end of 
March, or the beginning or middle of April, and leaves the 
north of the kingdom for the south, about the middle of 
August or September. 
These birds will occasionally pursue insects on the wing, 
VOL. I. x 
