The Pied Wagtail. 179 



ridge of a roof, a stone coping, or an old wall, catching the flies as thej'^ start up 

 at its approach, and frequeutl}' uttering its cheerful little cry " chizzic,''' as each 

 new victim is perceived : whether this is its call-note or the shrill monosyllabic 

 short whistle (into which the bird can throw so much expression that it almost 

 seems to speak) I do not know for certain, but I am inclined, from long study of 

 this species in captivit}^ to believe that " chizzic'^ is merely a cry of excitement. 



The Pied Wagtail usually builds its nest in hollows in banks, sides of deserted 

 chalk-pits, Sand-IMartin's holes, gaps in brickwork under rustic bridges, in a hole 

 in a wall just above water, or a crevice in a rock ; but it sometimes places it in 

 gnarled roots of trees, in faggot-stacks, in ivj* on the top of a low wall, and I 

 once took one formed in a deserted Blackbird's nest built in '\\y on the top of 

 the trunk of a branchless oak. Xidification lasts from April to June, but most 

 nests ma}' be found towards the end of ]May : indeed m}- experience would incline 

 me to regard none of the Wagtails as earl}- breeders, though forward individuals 

 may be read}' to nest in April. 



The nest is constructed of dry bents, rootlets, and a little moss, and is 

 thickly lined with wool, or feathers and hair : it is somewhat large and shallow 

 in character, frequently with one side higher than the other, if it be possible for 

 a circular rim to have sides. The eggs van,- in number from four to six, the 

 latter being a frequent clutch ; in colouring they are tolerably uniform, differing 

 chiefly in the paler or darker ground tint (though it is always light) and more or 

 less heavy speckling at the larger end ; the ground colour is either a greenish- 

 white or pale greenish-grey, the speckling is grey or smoky-brown (a few of the 

 dots often approaching black) some of the markings being more prominent than 

 others. The House-Sparrow sometimes lays a similar egg, only generally of a 

 more elongated shape. 



The Pied Wagtail is largely insectivorous ; but, in addition to insects, their 

 larvae, spiders, centipedes, and (according to the late Mr. Booth) the ova of a small 

 crab, I believe that in the winter seeds are swallowed by it. At any rate this is 

 certainly the case in an aviar}-, though not often. 



In September, 1888, I purchased my first captive Pied Wagtail from a bird- 

 catcher. It was decidedly a domineering bird, and was long before it became 

 tame, knocking out all its tail-feathers in the first few months of its confinement 

 in a large aviar}', nor did it recover them until the following July : it lived 

 about eighteen months, after it had starved my hen Grey Wagtail to death by 

 incessantly driving it from the soft food. 



In June or July, 1892, a nest of six of these birds was shown to me in a 

 field a short distance from my house; the site for the nest was rather curious: a 



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