OF HARTING. 277 



common, and may often be seen near every shallow 

 pool of water, engaged in running down the insects 

 which swarm in such places ; occasionally it pursues 

 them on the wing, and after every capture gives a 

 lively chirp, as if in exultation at its success. The 

 Grey Wagtail (Motacilla Boaruld) visits us in winter 

 only, from which circumstance it is known locally as 

 the Winter Wagtail, retiring farther north in March or 

 April to attend to its domestic affairs. We have never 

 met with its nest here, but this season, for the first 

 time, we have taken its eggs in the neighbourhood of 

 Petworth.* The beautiful Yellow Wagtail (Budytes 

 Rayi), sometimes called the Summer Wagtail, is much 

 more rare with us than the other two, but its nest has 

 been found within a few yards of the Blackrye Pond 

 at Down Park. 



The Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis), which is so 

 frequently victimized by the Cuckoo, and the Tree 

 Pipit (Anthus arboreus) are common and generally 

 dispersed. The latter is chiefly remarkable for the 

 great variation in the colour and markings of its eggs. 

 We possess no less than eight varieties, many of them 

 so unlike each other, that a scrupulous collector would 

 hesitate to label them on his own authority without 

 having seen the parent bird sitting on them. The 

 Sky Lark (Alauda arvensis), "whose notes do beat 

 the vaulty heaven so high above our heads," in the 

 season of song, is as numerous as the corn fields in 

 which it builds its nest, and is too well known to 

 require any lengthened notice here. Immense flocks 

 of these birds are among the " Common objects of the 

 Country " in the autumn and winter months, during 

 which those who do not find their way into the 

 London and other markets, are industriously clearing 

 the fields of the seeds of wild plants, which, in his 



Since this was written we have found its nest and eggs near 

 " The Hatches," in the rocky bank of a stream formed by the 

 waste water of Hurst Mill pond. 



