YELLOW WAGTAIL 



RAY'S WAGTAIL. 



PLATE LXVI. FIGURE II. 

 Motacilla rait, BONAPARTE. 



THE nest of this regular summer visitor to Great 

 Britain is placed in fields on the ground, is com- 

 pacted of dry stalks and fibres, lined with hair, or wool, 

 or finer portions of the same, the materials varying con- 

 siderably even in the same locality. Hewitson mentions 

 his having found one in the hole of a wall near water, 

 and another upon a ledge of earth on the bank of a river. 

 Meyer describes one made of moss, with a few tufts of 

 grass outside, and a few horse-hairs within. 



The eggs, four or five or six in number, are greyish 

 white, thickly mottled or sprinkled all over with a darker 

 shade, in some very obscurely, of grey, or pale rufous, or 

 yellowish brown ; other specimens are nearly pale dull 

 yellow, slightly marbled over. Many specimens are marked 

 with dark black hair-like streaks on the larger end. They 

 are of a rather long oval form, 



The Yellow Wagtail is an early nester, building its 

 nest in the latter part of April, so that the young can fly 

 by the end of May, and a second brood is often reared 

 during the season. 



