252 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



wagtails is, to a large extent, an aerial one. That they sing, also, 

 when descending in their small splendours (too much overlooked 

 simply because they are small), seems in itself probable, yet that the 

 combination is not of so marked a nature as with the former birds, is 

 suggested, at any rate, if not established, by the fact that Naumann, 

 to whom we owe the foregoing account of their nuptial activities, 

 does not seem to have been much impressed with this feature of 

 the performance. He mentions, indeed, 1 some notes of a soft and 

 plaintive character (ziirli or zussri in the one case, zier, zier, in the 

 other) as preceding, and also accompanying, the descent both of the 

 grey- and blueheaded-wagtails. These, however, he treats rather as 

 the call, or cry, of love (Paarungsruf}, and speaks of the song as distinct 

 from them, nor does he mention it in this connection. Yet wagtails 

 certainly sing some of them prettily and it is, therefore, interesting 

 and suggestive to find various independent witnesses alluding to the 

 infrequency with which they do so. Are the vocal attractions, in 

 this case, gradually ceding to those which appeal to the eye of the 

 female, and has this been a general process in birds of great beauty 

 of plumage, to which such examples as the lyre-bird arid king bird 

 of paradise are to be looked upon as exceptions ? If so, we can 

 the better understand why the combination of the two powers of 

 fascination is more common when neither is in extremis, which, how- 

 ever, would allow room for a good deal of beauty and a good deal 

 of melody, in unison, which is to be seen more often than has, 

 apparently, been taken note of. Be this as it may, some passages 

 descriptive of the song of our wagtails, in which the point of its 

 infrequency is well brought out, will not here be out of place. In 

 the Field of 3rd November 1889, we have the following from one who 

 signs himself " Borderer " : " As the song of the pied-wagtail seems 

 to be so little known, and in the books I have referred to by 

 Montagu, Yarrell, Wood, and Harting, is only noticed in one viz. 

 that by Col. Montagu I think it may be of interest to mention that 



1 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, iii. 



