PLATE I 

 YELLOW WAGTAIL. Motacilla rait. 



May 28//1, 1897, Mildenhall, Suffolk. The nest depicted in this Plate is of 

 unusual interest to me, as it is the only one in which I have actually seen a 

 Cuckoo deposit her egg. 



I had observed the Wagtails frequenting a low-lying meadow near the 

 river Lark, and had tried on several occasions to discover the nest. I lay 

 out for some hours watching the two birds, but failed to locate the nest, as 

 the female always alighted some distance away, and ran to it through the long 

 grass, where of course I could not see her. I hunted every clump of grass 

 one day and could not find it. As I was leaving in disgust, she got up 

 somewhere behind me, and I failed to locate the spot. 



Two days afterwards I was going along the river-bank to photograph a 

 Kingfisher's nest, when I saw two Wagtails mobbing a Cuckoo close to where 

 I had suspected the nest to be. I ambuscaded myself in a willow bush and 

 got out my glasses. The Cuckoo had an egg in her bill I ! Breathlessly I 

 watched as she flew from place to place, alighting on the ground and followed 

 by the Wagtails. At last she seemed to be very busy at the foot of a tall 

 thistle. I took careful bearings and walked straight to the spot. She got up 

 within ten yards of me without the egg, and at the foot of the thistle, quite 

 open, was the Wagtails' nest, with the Cuckoo's egg in it and four Wagtails' 

 eggs! 



'39 



