1604 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



worked together and neatly lined with wool, hair, and often feathers. The eggs 

 are white in ground color, spotted and speckled with grayish browu. When the 

 young leave the nest, they live for some weeks with their parents, haunting garden 

 lawns and meadow lands in search of food. The flight of the white wagtail is rapid 

 and undulating. The call note is loud and sibilant, and the song somewhat pleas- 

 ing, although far from powerful. The white wagtail sometimes migrates in large 

 parties, and is fond of roosting in the cover supplied by aquatic reeds. All the 

 movements of this bird are elegant and rapid, perhaps even more so than those of 

 the closely -allied pied wagtail (M. lugubris}, so well known in the British Islands 

 as a summer visitor. White varieties of this wagtail are occasionally seen, in which 

 the characteristic pattern of plumage had become almost obsolete. The adult male 

 in the breeding season has the forehead and sides of the head pure white; the crown, 

 back of the head, and nape jetty black; the back, rump, and upper tail coverts pure 

 pearl gray; the primaries and wing coverts dusky black, edged with grayish white; 

 the tail black and white; the chin and throat black; and the lower parts pure white. 



The yellow-headed wagtail (M. citreola) is a native of Siberia and 

 Y w~ ^^ C ^astern Russia, wintering in most parts of the Indian Empire, and 

 apparently finding its westward summer limits in the valleys of the 

 Petchora and Volga. It breeds in Kashmir, where the nests are placed under clods 

 in the plowed fields. The proper home of this beautiful bird, is, however, among 

 the dreary tundras of the far north; Mr. Seebohm having observed it perching on 

 alder bushes in the neighborhood of flooded land on the banks of the Petchora. 

 There it breeds in June, and its habits resemble those of other yellow wagtails, its 

 light dainty form assimilating closely to that of the blue-headed and yellow wag- 

 tails. The adult male in summer has the entire head and neck deep yellow, as are 

 the under parts; the upper plumage being ashy gray tinged with bluish. 



The species which haunts the streams and mountain torrents of 

 ay a ^ ai Central Europe is the gray wagtail (M. melanope}. A common sum- 

 mer visitant and partial resident In the British Isles, shunning the neighborhood of 

 sluggish, turbid rivers, and delighting in tiny cascades and rippling waterfalls, the 

 gray wagtail is fond of wading daintily in the shallows of a stream, and running 

 over the rocks rising out of the bed. Never found at any distance from water, the 

 nest is placed in a variety of situations, often in the recesses of some loose stone wall, 

 or mossy shelf of rock overhanging running water; while a hole in a wooden bridge 

 is occasionally selected. Nesting year after year in the same place, the gray wag- 

 tail is a very early breeder, full complements of eggs being laid early in April; and 

 it breeds twice in a season, the second brood being generally fully fledged about the 

 middle of July. The nest is built of dry stems of grass and a few roots, usually 

 lined with horsehair; six eggs being laid in a clutch, which are white in ground color, 

 suffused with pale brown or olive. The gray wagtail has a pretty little song, often 

 uttered from the top of some willow or other riverside tree; the males are very jeal- 

 ous each choosing his own territory from which every intruder is ousted. Even when 

 the first broods of young are already fledged, and actively searching for food in 

 company with their parents, the old cocks are always on their guard against the 

 possible intrusion of a stranger, whose approach is invariably heralded with a chal- 



