190 Thr Yellow Wagtail. 



the beginniug of April : the return migration taking place in September and 

 October. 



The fondness of this Wagtail and its Blue-headed relative for the pastures in 

 which cattle are grazing is well-known, the attraction being the flies which collect 

 round and torment these animals. They also follow the plough and feed upon 

 the wireworms and other beetle-larvas which are turned up in the furrows ; also in 

 the fields, in which spring sowing is being carried on, they doubtless find many 

 small worms and spiders. Like all the Wagtails they are fond of bathing, and 

 consequently are frequently met with near streams and dykes ; or in deserted 

 brickfields, where the winter rains have formed pools, surrounded by coarse grass 

 and nettles. 



W. Warde Fowler, in his "Summer Studies," p.p. 109-10 has the following 

 interesting account of a large assemblage of this pretty species : — " These most 

 charming birds come to Oxford about the middle of April. They come wp the 

 river, and gather in great numbers on that vast meadow above the city known as 

 Port Meadow ; which almost deserves a chapter to itself, so interesting is its 

 history, so rich its treasures of birds and plants, and so various its aspect in flood 

 and frost, under sunshine and shower. Here, on the 26th of April, 1887, I saw 

 a more wonderful gathering of Yellow Wagtails than I have ever seen since, or 

 am ever likely to see again. Mr. Arthur Macpherson had come into my rooms 

 the evening before, to tell me that he had seen some Dunlins on the bank of the 

 Isis, where it bounds this great meadow to the west. As these birds of the sea- 

 shore had never before been reported to me, I started the next afternoon, hindered 

 and baffled by a strong and bitter wind which soon turned to pelting rain, and by 

 a toothache which raged in sympathy with the elements ; b;it I was rewarded for 

 my pains. I found the Dunlins ; but I found also what was far more wonderful 

 and beautiful — the whole length of the river's bank, on the meadow side of it, 

 occupied by countless Yellow Wagtails. As I walked along they got up literally 

 from under my feet ; for they were sheltering just beneath the meadow's lip, and 

 I came upon them quite unawares. When a turn in the bank gave me a view 

 ahead, I could see the turf spotted all over with the brilliant 3^ellow of their 

 breasts ; for I was walking with the wind, and the}', of course, were facing it, to 

 avoid having their plumage uncomfortably handled by the gusts. 



They were not afraid of me, and settled down again directly I had passed on, 

 so that my progress was like that of a haymaking machine, which just lifts the 

 hay as it passes, and then lets it settle down again after dallying a moment with 

 the breeze. These birds had clearly only just arrived after their long journe}- from 

 Africa, and I think they must have come together and unpaired ; the greater 



