292 



LAKES AND STREAMS 



with grass and flowers, suspended to reeds growing in the mud and not in the 

 water. The parent-birds hunt for their insect-food through the dense growing 

 reeds and low hushes, keeping generally close to the water; and, where several 

 pairs dwell together, quarrels are frequent, the birds driving one another out of 

 the reeds, and, while wrangling, darting along with a whirr just over the surface 

 of the stream. The song is heard from the beginning till the middle of June 

 during most of the day, and generally late into the evening. It is loud, but 

 entirely wanting in flute-like notes, and at frequent intervals bears some resem- 

 blance to the croaking of a frog. The greater reed warbler ranges over southern 

 and central Europe as far north as England and southern Sweden, where it is, 



.■'y Mi 



_c r ■ 



THE 'WHITE WAGTAIL. 



however, an unfrequent straggler. It is also found in western Asia as far as 

 the Caspian, and when migrating, visits the western and northern coasts of 

 Africa, often extending its flight to the Equator and occasionally as far as the 

 Transvaal : it is abundant in certain districts of the Continent, such as the valleys 

 of the Havel and the Spree, in Mecklenburg, the Rhine, and the Danube, especially 

 in the Dobrudscha. 



Some of the wagtails are as much birds of the water as the 

 above-named warblers. The white wagtail (Motacilla alba), for 

 instance, though frequently found away from water, is much more at home by the 

 side of a stream, and there, as a rule, it builds its nest. In the second half of 

 April or in June the nest contains from five to eight eggs, which have small grey 

 spots on a whitish ground covered all over with reddish brown dots and streaks. 



White Wagtail. 



