v A Chapter on Wagtails 103 



When the nesting time is over, the parents and 

 their young broods, after spending the day on lawn 

 or meadow, will associate in roosting in some con- 

 venient cover. Early in July I have found them in 

 numbers in a small osier-bed, while looking for the 

 Marsh Warbler towards sunset. But the autumn is 

 the time to look out for their great gatherings. Then 

 they travel in multitudes, hardly observable by day, 

 when they are often on the newly-ploughed fields, 

 but if you should happen to come upon them at 

 nightfall, fairly astonishing you with their numbers. 

 On the 9th of last October, the last day of my long 

 vacation, I strolled at sunset down to the meadow of 

 which part is occupied by the osier-bed that first 

 attracted the Marsh Warbler; it was fast getting 

 dark, but I at once heard the shrill double notes all 

 round me. All along the stream I put Pied Wag- 

 tails up at every step ; then turning up to the 

 railway which runs above the field, I saw the tele- 

 graph wires covered with them. With the help of 

 the glass I counted forty -five on the wires and 

 another forty on the grass just below them ; then I 

 went to the osier-bed and threw a stone into it, which 

 brought out a cloud of wagtails, disturbed from their 

 first sleep. 



The next time I was able to pay this wonderful 



brought into use again the hen bird continued to sit on her eggs 

 during successive journeys, and finally reared her young. 



