GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. 45 



and the dead flag-like leaves of the reed with a little grass, and 

 lined with the seed-down of the reed. Sometimes almost on the 

 ground, sometimes raised a little above it in a tuft of grass or 

 reeds, on the margin of a ditch or other water, it contains four 

 to six eggs, not so large as those of the Greater Titmouse, and of 

 usual Titmouse colour and markings. Fig. 18, plate III. 



VI. AMPELID^E. 

 77. BOHEMIAN WAXWING. (Bombycilla garrula). 



Waxen Chatterer, Chatterer, Bohemian Chatterer. Less rare 

 as a visitor, than some other British Birds ; but still only a visitor. 



VH. MOTACILLID.E. 

 78. PIED WAGTAIL. (Motacilla alba}. 



White Wagtail, Black and White Wagtail, Dishwasher, Wash- 

 tail, Nanny Washtail. I think we, ail of us, know this familiar 

 and very graceful bird, and like to see its active run and short 

 flight taken for the purpose of capturing an insect. We have 

 often been amused, too, at seeing perhaps a whole family of young 

 ones running among the legs of the cows near the water, and 

 taking a fly now from the belly or flank of the great animal, and 

 then from its leg or the ground. The nest is made of grass, bents, 

 dead roots, moss, and is sometimes found in a hole in the rude 

 wall of an old shed or the side of a haulm wall or pile of furze, 

 or in a hole in a bank ; sometimes on the outside of a heap of 

 sticks, or in thatch, or upon the end of a haystack, and other 

 analogous places. Four or five eggs are customarily found in it, 

 white, and speckled with cinereous spots and lines, being often 

 such as to resemble one variety of the varying eggs of the House- 

 sparrow. Fig. 19, plate III. 



79. GREY WAGTAIL. (Motacilla boarula). 



Less plentiful than the Pied Wagtail, equally elegant and 

 more beautiful, this little bird resembles the other in its ways 

 and habits. Its nest is placed on the ground at no great 

 distance from water, which has many attractions for it, as well as 

 for the common " Nanny Wash-tail." The materials and general 

 structure are, in the main, the same as in the last case ; feathers 

 and wool being introduced as a lining. There are often five or 

 six eggs in it, of a faint white ground-colour, mottled and 

 streaked with very light brown, a few streaks being sometimes of 

 a darker tint. Fig. 20, plate III. 



80. GREY-HEADED WAGTAIL. (Motacilla neglecta). 

 Met witH less than half-a-dozen times in all in Britain. 



