THE WAGTAILS. 45 



The young have the lower parts of a dirty white;, 

 across the breast there is a band of brown-ash ; the 

 remainder of the plumage is ash-colour. The young, 

 hatched in spring, begin to take the adult plumage in 

 autumn. The young of the second brood migrate 

 before attaining the adult plumage, and even return 

 in this condition ; they are then (M. cinerea). They 

 live on the borders of streams, or even in towns and 

 villages, and on towers and steeples. They go as far 

 as the Arctic zone. They build in meadows, on 

 shelving, rocky places under bridges, or in towers or 

 holes of trees. They lay sometimes six eggs, of a 

 bluish-white, spotted with black. They feed on gnats, 

 centipedes, woodlice, and insects and their larvae. 



The Yellow Wagtail (M. Rayi\ builds its nests on 

 the ground in fields or on the banks of rivers. The 

 nest is made of dried grass, moss, or wool, and lined 

 with hair and fine fibres ; but Mr. Newton says the 

 construction of the nest differs even in the same 

 locality, sometimes being made of green moss and 

 rabbits' down. The eggs are rather smaller than those 

 of the Gray Wagtail, and much resemble those of the 

 Gray-headed Wagtail ; and even are so like the eggs 

 of the Sedge-warbler that if mixed together Mr. 

 Hewitson says it would be difficult to distinguish 

 them. The head of this species is pale olive ; it has 

 a yellow line over the eye, and the chin and throat 

 are yellow. The two outer feathers of the tail on 

 each side are white, with a streak of black on the 

 inner side ; the other feathers are brownish-black. It 

 very much resembles the Gray-headed Wagtail (M. 

 neglecta), but the latter has a gray head ; the line over 



