24 Mr. J. BlackwalFs Oimithological Notes. 



writing, having no inclination to lay myself open to the sai'casm 



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 europcBus. 



White, in his ' Natural History of Selborne,' letter xxii., 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, I 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 



