^06 MOTACILL1DJ5. 



He adds : " The Pied Wagtail breeds in the neighbourhood of 

 Deesa in the early part of the year. I found a nest in the hole of 

 a river-bank on the 9th April, 1870, containing three half-fledged 

 young ones ; the parent birds kept flying backwards and forwards 

 to the nest with small dragon-flies in their mouths. I found 

 another nest at Sattara in September 1872, in a small hole cut as 

 a step in the stonework of a well by the side of a large tank." 



Mr. "W. Davison says : " The Pied Wagtail breeds in April 

 and May on the Nilghiris. I have taken the nest from the bank 

 of a stream, between the beams of an old bridge, and for several 

 years in succession from a slit in a rock in the Ootacamund Lake. 

 The nest is chiefly composed of grass and grass-roots, lined with 

 flue dry grass." 



Writing from the banks of the Cauvery Mr. H. E. P. Carter 

 records that on the 17th December, 1866, he " found a nest in the 

 space between the girder of a bridge and the wall. The nest 

 was made principally of coir, lined with bullock's hair; it was 

 shallow and not well formed. Eggs three, very broad and blunt 

 at one end, and pointed at the other. 



" 20th January, 1867. Again examined the old nest and found 

 that it had been strengthened by some rags, otherwise was much 

 as last year's. There were two eggs in it this time." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : 

 " Common, and breeds in cold weather and rains." 



The eggs differ very much in size and shape, and vary from a 

 long to a rather broad oval. They are always more or less pointed 

 towards the small end. In the general shade of the egg and in 

 the colour and extent of the markings they vary excessively. 

 There are, however, two leading types the one in which the pre- 

 vailing tint is greenish, a greenish-white ground with greenish- 

 brown markings ; and the other in which the general colour is 

 brown, dingy \vood-brown markings on a pale earthy-white ground. 

 Each of them again is divisible into two classes those in which 

 the markings are comparatively distinct, and leave a good deal of 

 the ground-colour, especially towards the e-mail end, visible ; and 

 those in which they are nearly confluent everywhere, only leaving 

 the ground-colour to peep through in specks or as a feeble paler 

 mottling. Even this last class is again divisible into t\\ o types 

 one in which the markings are excessively close speckling, and the 

 other in which they are close smudgy mottling. All the varieties 

 that their eggs exhibit are reproduced amongst those of our Larks, 

 and both in their nesting-habits and the character of their eggs 

 there seem stronger affinities between the Wagtails and the Larks 

 than would be surmised from their plumage and external appear- 

 ance. Generally it may be said that the ground-colour (of which 

 more or less is visible in different specimens) varies from pale 

 brownish to greenish white. The markings are clouds, smudges, 

 streaks, spots, and specks ; sometimes all these forms are exhibited 

 in one and the same egg, but most commonly one or other form 

 greatly predominates, so as to give its own peculiar character to 



