178 YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
somewhat after the manner of the Flycatchers. They are of 
a gentle and affectionate disposition among themselves, and 
are generally seen in pairs, but in the “autumn in small 
families—the parents and their offspring. 
The sylph-hke motions which distinguish the rest of its 
tribe, belong equally to the species before us, as well as the 
vibration of its body, and the expansion of the feathers of 
the tail, especially on first alighting. Its flight is extremely 
graceful —a series of lengthened undulations. 
Its food consists of insects, and these it seeks both on the 
‘high and dry’ upland, and in moist and low situations. 
Its note, which is a double one, is rather shrill. 
The nest is placed on the ground, or near it on the stump 
of a tree, and is compacted of dry stalks and fibres, and 
lined with hair. Meyer describes one made of moss, with a 
few tufts of grass outside, and a few horse-hairs within. 
The eggs, four or five or six in number, are pale brown, 
or greenish white, sprinkled all over with a darker shade, in 
some very obscurely, of grey, or pale rufous or yellowish 
brown; some specimens are nearly plain dull yellow, slightly 
marbled over; these are said to be smaller in size. They 
are of a rather long oval form. ‘The young birds are able 
to fly about the end of May. 
Male; length, six inches and three quarters; bill, black; iris, 
dark brown, over it is a line of yellow; forehead, yellow; 
sides of the head, crown, neck, and nape behind, yellow, with 
a tinge of greyish green; chin, throat, and breast, rich 
yellow; back, pale ereenish brown, the middle part of the 
feathers being brown, and their margins yellowish green. 
The wings “expand ‘to the width of ten inches and a half; 
the first three quill feathers are of nearly equal length, the 
second the longest, the first nearly as long: Yarrell describes 
the first as the longest; probably difterent specimens vary in 
this respect, as already shewn in the case of Montagu’s Harrier. 
Greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky brown, the first row 
tipped with pale yellow; primaries, dusky brown, edged with 
dull yellowish white; seeondaries, dusky brown, edeed with 
yellowish white; tertiaries, dusky brown, edged and tipped with 
yellowish white: greater and lesser under wi ing coverts, greyish. 
The tail is long, and slightly rounded, its feathers narrow, 
dusky in colour, shghtly ‘edged near the base with yellow, 
the middle feathers edged with greenish yellow, the two outer 
ones on each side nearly white on the outer web, and the shaft, 
