WAGTAILS— BUNTING 293 



This lively bird is always on the move, has little fear of man, delights in teasing 

 other small birds, and shows a bold front to birds-of-prey, mobbing them with 

 shrill screams and singing a loud song of triumph after they have flown away. 

 When walking or running, it moves quickly, constantly nodding its head and 

 wagging its tail up and down, this action being especially rapid when the bird 

 settles down to rest. The flight is in a series of graceful curves and undulations, 

 which allow of easy turning in any direction. The food consists of aquatic 

 insects, which it seeks as it wades in shallow water, and of all kinds of other 

 insects, in chase of which it runs about on land. In its song, which is more 

 sweet than powerful, it frequently repeats a calling-phrase that sounds like 

 ziwit and zissziss, zississississ. The yearly visits of this wagtail are prolonged 

 from March till the middle of October, and in Germany these birds sometimes 

 remain during the winter, though only on rare occasions. The species nests 

 nearly all over Europe, its northward range extending to Iceland, Greenland, and 

 Jan Mayen ; while eastward it reaches the valley of the Yenesei and northern 

 India. From Europe it migrates into Africa, where it has been found in 

 Senegambia and the interior of the continent. The white wagtail is over 7 inches 

 long, and distinguishable from the pied or water wagtail by its back being grey 

 instead of black, and by having more black on the crown and nape and less on 

 the throat. In all other respects — in habits, nesting-arrangements, and song — 

 the two birds are alike, the pied wagtail (M. lugubris) being much commoner in 

 the British Isles, where it is a well-known resident. The latter species is confined 

 to the west of Europe, its eastward range being bounded by Norway, Denmark, 

 Holland, Belgium, and France, and its winter migration taking it into Spain and 

 Morocco, and occasionally, as a straggler, into Italy. 



In central Europe the grey wagtail {M. melanope) is mainly 



a bird of the mountain-streams, though occasionally found in the 

 plains when on its travels, and then always by clear running water. It frequents 

 the fields only when ther-e is water in the neighbourhood, and is never met 

 with in meadows where the grass is long. As restless as the other wagtails, 

 it lives in constant feud with its kindred, and feeds on insects which it catches 

 by sometimes creeping on them unawares or springing after them. It is the 

 companion of the trout and the water-ousel, and never remains for any length 

 of time near open water unsheltered by bushes. The grey wagtail builds its 

 nest in hollow banks, in holes in walls, and among heaps of stone, generally near 

 the water, and, as a rule, not very near the ground. The song is stronger and 

 more melodious than that of the white wagtail, the call-note being similar 

 but more musical and of a higher pitch. The grey wagtail ranges all over 

 Europe and its islands, but not so far north as the white wagtail : it is rare in 

 north Germany, but comparatively frequent in the Hartz Mountains, in Thuringia, 

 Saxony, Franconia, southern Germany, Switzerland, France, and the British Isles. 

 It is found in Asia as far east as the Pacific, and also in Burma and the 

 Malay Archipelago ; and on migration is met with in northern and central Africa. 

 The one European representative of the buntings found in the 



neighbourhood of water is the reed bunting (Emberiza schceniclus), 

 which inhabits low marshy situations overgrown with reeds and rushes, bushes 



