254 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



occasion on which I have ever heard it really sing," to the following 

 clear description which, as will be seen, resembles that which has 

 been quoted of the pied-wagtail's song. " Besides its call-note," he 

 tells us, " which consists of two shrill notes, the second of which is a 

 musical tone lower than the first, it has a short and exceedingly sweet 

 song, something like that of the redbreast when at its best. This I 

 have heard it utter whilst it was perched on a low bush overhanging 

 a pond. Its nest was probably somewhere in the neighbourhood, for, 

 when disturbed, it flew to a short distance only, alighted on another 

 twig, and repeated its warble again." It may be doubted whether 

 Lilford " ever heard the bird really sing" since he only says a that 

 " the yellow-wagtail has more of a song, and altogether more musical 

 notes than either the pied or grey species " ; but Yarrell also remarks 

 that the song of this species, which he describes, it would seem 

 inappreciatively, as " lively, though short," is " not often uttered." 2 

 Whether this last is an expression adequate to the infrequency of 

 its utterance nowadays, as judged from what has been previously 

 quoted, is perhaps an interesting point in connection with the fact 

 that Yarrell died more than fifty years ago. It is probable, moreover, 

 that the words quoted record the impressions of the earlier portion 

 of his life. As before stated, Naumann 3 alludes to the song 

 of both the grey- and blueheaded-wagtail, as distinct from 

 the notes which they utter before and whilst making the nuptial 

 display. In both he finds considerable resemblance to that of 

 the white-wagtail, but whilst the former "is better than it," and 

 " not unpleasant," the latter he declared to be a bad one. Summing 

 up the evidence which space does not permit me here to go more 

 fully into in the wagtails, song and bodily display would appear to 

 be, on the whole, disunited, and whilst one form M. a. alba sings 

 continuously, the habit of doing so seems to have lessened, in varying 

 degrees, in all the others ; not very much, perhaps, in the blueheaded- 



1 Birds of Northamptonshire. 2 A History of British Birds. 



3 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, iii. 



