closely than its congeners do ; it shows great agility in picking them from the 

 stems of plants, often fluttering up a tall stem to capture the small beetles 

 which lurk in some flower. It searches the droppings of the cattle for the 

 insects which abound there, and in spring it eats great quantities of larvae of 

 various kinds. 



The call-note of the Yellow Wagtail is a penetrating, sharply uttered 

 ' cheet-np ' or ' chit-up? usually uttered as the bird takes wing. The alarm-note 

 seems to be the same, as on several occasions when I have been examining 

 a nest the male bird flew round and round in jerking circles uttering this note. 

 Occasionally the male bird indulges in song : suddenly, without any warning, 

 he flutters into the air warbling his little song, which only lasts for a few 

 moments ; then down he drops again, and probably does not sing again for 

 a day or two. 



The Yellow Wagtail returns year after year to its accustomed haunts : it 

 pairs a little after its arrival in spring, but it is probable that many pairs do 

 not separate at all. It is rather an early breeder, and eggs may be found by 

 the last week of April. The Yellow Wagtail often alights in trees, but is 

 seldom seen on the roofs of houses as its relations so often are, probably 

 because it prefers the open fields rather than the vicinity of houses. The nest 

 is always built upon the ground, generally in a well-sheltered situation, and 

 carefully concealed by a clump of grass or some weed or clod of turf. Some- 

 times it is built in the bank at the edge of a field or beside some stream ; but 

 the favourite situation is in some dense clump of grass in the middle of some 

 meadow. The bird sits very close, and I have beaten a clump of grass for 

 some time before the little bird at last fluttered out, disclosing its nest. The 

 materials of which the nest is made vary largely, according with the sur- 

 roundings ; as a rule the outside is composed of dry grass, stems of plants, 

 or rootlets. No two nests are lined alike : some are lined with horse-hair or 

 cow-hair, often almost entirely with feathers, while many are lined with fine 

 rootlets or dry grass. 



The eggs laid vary in number from five to six: I have once found seven, 

 and once only four. They are greyish white in ground-colour, which is usually 

 quite hidden by the profusion of pale brown or olive brown surface-mottlings. 

 Many specimens have one or two blackish brown streaks or hairlike scrawlings 

 on the larger end, and I have seen one or two clutches which were suffused 

 with a purplish bloom. They vary in length from '81 to 73 inch, and in 

 breadth from '63 to -54 inch. 



Two broods are reared in the season. 



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