192 THE ANGLER'S BIRDS. 



you a feminine curtsey and the other bobbing 

 a bachelor bow. 



This species is the most truly aquatic of the 

 three, seldom leaving the immediate vicinity of 

 the water, which it crosses and recrosses with 

 the same joyous and jerky flight. Not only 

 will they wade out freely in the shallows 

 looking for minnows, but will move about like 

 yellow mice on floating masses of weed and 

 rubbish where they can only obtain an insecure 

 foothold. 



In Devonshire I have not come across the 

 nest, although I know a certain ledge teeming 

 with primroses, on the other side, where a pair 

 build every year. It is too deep to wade across 

 and too far round to prompt the walk in early 

 spring. On the banks of the Itchen a young 

 fellow who used to walk up the river with me 

 found several, both in May and June, which 

 shows that two broods must often be hatched 

 out. These nests were invariably among the 

 tangled herbage on the steep bank and could 

 not possibly have been mistaken for those of 

 either the pied or the yellow wagtail. Besides 

 which the" birds themselves were in constant 

 evidence, feeding busily on the small islands 

 of cut weed that floated downstream day after 

 day. The eggs number five or six; whitish, 

 clouded and mottled with olive colour. 



THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. This is Ray's Wag- 

 tail, as he is properly termed, quite unmistakable 

 from the preceding bird when once both of 



