24 Mr. J. Blackwall’s Ornithological Notes. 
writing, having no inclination to lay myself open to the sarcasm 
contained in the well-known distich, 
“As the fool thinks 
So the bell clinks.” 
The Gray Wagtail, Motacilla boarula. 
This beautiful species, remarkable for elegance of form, nice 
distribution of colours and graceful agility of movement, though 
observed to remain in Denbighshire and Caernarvonshire through- 
_ out the year, is certainly much more numerous in the summer 
than in the winter. It usually constructs its nest on the banks 
of brooks and rivers and the margins of pools and lakes ; but as 
it does not appear to increase perceptibly in those counties, not- 
withstanding the number of young birds brought up in them 
annually, it is evident that many individuals which withdraw 
from that part of Wales in autumn do not return to it; the in- 
fluences which regulate the geographical distribution of birds 
are, however, involved in much obscurity. 
The yellow wagtail, Motacilla flava, so common in Lancashire 
during the summer season, I have not yet seen in the valley of 
the Conway. 
The Goatsucker, Caprimulgus europeus. 
White, im his ‘ Natural History of Selborne,’ letter xxi, ad- 
dressed to Thomas Pennant, Esq., states that the goatsucker 
sometimes makes a small squeak, which it repeats four or five 
times ; and that he has observed this to happen when the cock- 
bird has been pursuing the hen in a toying manner through the 
boughs of a tree. He asserts also, in his ‘Observations in 
various branches of Natural History,’ that when a person ap- 
proaches the haunts of goatsuckers in an evening, they continue 
flying round the head of the obtruder, and by striking their 
wings together above their backs, in the manner that the 
pigeons called Smiters are known to do, make a smart snap; 
adding, that on such occasions they are probably jealous for 
their young, and that their noise and gesture are intended by 
way of menace. 
My own observations mostly serve to confirm the accuracy of 
those made by Mr. White ; nevertheless, | may remark that I 
have heard this species utter its squeaking note when it was 
alarmed for the safety of its progeny; and that I have seen the 
male strike its wings together above its back, and by that act, 
repeated several times in quick succession, produce a series of 
snapping sounds, when it was in eager pursuit of the female, at 
the commencement of the pairing season in the month of May. 
The habit which the goatsucker has of frequently alighting 
on roads in the dusk of evening is alluded to by Mr. Yarrell in 
