THE WAGTAILS 253 



on October 27th last, at Tunbridge Wells, I heard a pied-wagtail 

 singing very prettily and softly, from the top of my house. The 

 song I should describe as a gentle warbling song, something 

 like a weak and soft robin's, and having some resemblance to a 

 subdued lark's. The song was continued, though of course with 

 breaks, for some two or three minutes, and I thought, before I 

 saw the bird, that it was a wagtail that was singing, as I heard 

 the ordinary short double note. I have only once before heard a 

 wagtail singing, and, on that occasion, it seemed to me more like 

 the muffled song of a skylark than the song which I heard last 

 month." In connection with this, and taking into consideration 

 the fact that the specific identity of the white- and pied-wagtails 

 has sometimes been questioned, Naumann's description of the song 

 of the latter is of interest. 1 "It consists," he says, "of variations 

 of the different call-notes, and many other ones, not of a pleasing 

 character," whilst, so far from being seldom heard, "the male 

 sings pertinaciously," and " both sitting, running, and flying." Unless, 

 therefore, this is not the bird's true song in which case we must 

 suppose Naumann never to have heard it we have here a pronounced 

 difference between the two kinds, and, for myself, I can only say 

 that, when in Sweden, the white-wagtail, not only in appearance, 

 but in its deportment and individuality that indefinable something 

 which makes the essential self struck me as a bird quite distinct 

 from our own pied one. 



Whether, from the standpoint of sexual selection, the yellow- 

 wagtail is to be looked upon as a more or less adorned species than 

 litgubris, is, in spite of that name, perhaps doubtful. That its song 

 is also infrequent seems clear from the following quotations, but 

 whether in a greater or less degree, is, from the nature of the case, 

 difficult to say. 2 Borrer, indeed, states that he has " no recollection 

 of ever having heard it sing " ; and Johns 3 adds, " This is the only 



1 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleur&pas, Hi. 



1 Birds of Sussex. 3 British Birds in their Haunts. 



