THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 189 



ahead, I could see the turf spotted all over with the brilliant yellow of their 

 breasts; for I was walking with the wind, and they, of course, were facing it, to 

 avoid having their plumage uncomfortably handled by the gusts. 



They were not afraid of me, and settled down again directly I had passed on, 

 so that my progress was like that of a haymaking machine, which just lifts the 

 hay as it passes, and then lets it settle down again after dallying a moment with 

 the breeze. These birds had clearly only just arrived after their long journey from 

 Africa, and I think they must have come together and unpaired ; the greater 

 number of them were males. Their numbers diminished regularly day by day, 

 and at the same time I began to see pairs in their usual places in the neighbour- 

 hood evidently preparing to nest. In a few days they were nearly all distributed 

 over the country-side." 



The site chosen for the nest is frequently a furrow or depression in the earth 

 in a pasture or cornfield, partly concealed by coarse herbage or a dislodged grassy 

 clod, sometimes in the side of a deep pit partly filled with water and overgrown 

 with rank grass and nettles, or in a sloping bank covered with weeds and wild 

 flowers, or again among the long coarse grass at the foot of a wall. It is by no 

 means an easy nest to find, for it never seems to be exposed like that of the Pied 

 Wagtail, and therefore is more often discovered by accident than by design : that 

 is to say, when carefully searching every foot of ground with a view to securing 

 a possible nest of Skylark or Tree- Pipit, one may stumble upon that of the Yellow 

 Wagtail. The nest is constructed of coarse dry grasses and rootlets, lined with 

 finer rootlets, fine bents, black and white hair, or sometimes with green moss, 

 rabbits' down, or sheep's wool : feathers are said to be occasionally used.* The 

 eggs number from five to six, and usually closely resemble those of the Sedge- 

 Warbler, excepting that they are larger ; the paler varieties are greyish-white more 

 or less densely mottled with pale clay-colour ; but more often this mottling spreads 

 uniformly over the whole surface, rendering the shell uniformly pale stone-brown, 

 (like some eggs of the Partridge) there are usually one or two short black hair- 

 lines at 'the larger end. 



The call-note is a soft monosyllabic whistle, and the note of excitement a 

 shrill scizzur : the song, which is rarely heard, somewhat resembles that of the 

 Swallow. 



My first experience of this species in confinement was a short one. In the 

 winter of 1889-90, a birdcatcher brought me a specimen which he had carried 

 about in a cage with linnets and other birds all day ; no water being supplied and 

 only seed being available for food : the poor thing was so exhausted that it died 



* I have not, however, met with this material in the lining. A. G. B. 



VOL. i. 21 



