RAY'S WAGTAIL. 



109 



great celerity, vibrating its body, and at intervals expanding its 

 tail, as it searches for insects, after which it now and then makes 

 short excursions on wing. I have not met with it in the northern 

 parts of Scotland : but about Edinburgh it is, pretty generally dis- 

 tributed. 



Montagu states that it arrives here about the time when 

 the Pied Wagtail takes its departure for the north. In 

 Scotland it disappears about the middle of August, and in 

 the south of England towards the end of September. It 

 frequents arable land, especially in the more champaign 



BAY'S WAGTAIL. 



parts, sometimes in cultivated ground interspersed with 

 furze ; it is also partial to bean fields. In all such places 

 it breeds, and does not seem to require water so much as 

 either of the other species. The nest is always placed on the 

 ground, composed of dried stalks and fibres, lined with hair. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale brown, 

 sprinkled all over with a darker shade. Nothing can ex- 

 ceed the elegance of the fiight of this species, which is 

 performed in long graceful undulations ; its notes Lave a 

 considerable resemblance to those of the Pipets. It is 

 sometimes called the Oatear, or Oat-bird not, as Neville 

 Wood suggests, because it feeds on oats, or any other corn, 

 for it is wholly insectivorous but because those extensive 

 upland districts which it frequents are more favourable to 

 the growth of oats than to any other kind of grain, and 



