168 WHITE WAGTAIL. 



inside the window. In June he disappeared, but returned 

 again for a short time, after an absence of a few weeks. The 

 next year a pair, of which he probably was one, came again 

 to the window, but did not advance any further. 



Its food consists of insects and their larvae, and as these 

 are procured, as may be gathered from the previous remarks, 

 in every variety of situation, they are doubtless of as great 

 variety of kinds. Many a 'scarce article' that would be a 

 prize in the entomological cabinet, goes unheeded into the 

 indiscriminating pouch of the insectivorous bird. 



The nest is generally placed in a hole of a bank or of a 

 tree, higher or lower indifferently; sometimes under the eaves 

 of a thatched house, or between the timbers of a roof, among 

 felled wood, the roots that the earth may have fallen away 

 from, a meadow, under a bridge, or in a heap of stones. 

 Both birds assist in its formation, bringing together for the 

 purpose small twigs and sticks, moss, grass, straws, leaves, 

 and roots, and lining the whole with wool and hair. 



The eggs, which have little or no natural polish on them, 

 and are four or five, six or seven in number, are bluish white 

 in colour, speckled all over with minute grey specks, and 

 spotted with larger spots of brown, principally at the larger 

 end; occasionally in the way of an irregular belt. 



Male; length, seven inches and a quarter; bill, black; iris, 

 black; forehead and sides of the head, white; crown, black; 

 neck on the sides, white; part of the nape, black; chin and 

 throat, black, but not extending back to that of the nape, 

 a white space being left between the two, which runs into 

 the grey of the back; in the winter it becomes white, a 

 crescent only of black being left on the breast. Breast, white, 

 light grey on the sides; back, pale grey. The wings have 

 the first, second, and third feathers nearly equal in length, 

 the second rather the longest; greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 black, edged with white; primaries, black, narrowly edged 

 with white; tertiaries, black, rather more edged with white. 

 The tail, which is very long, and the feathers narrow, has 

 the eight middle ones black, the two outer ones white with 

 a black stripe along the inner margin, and a small portion 

 of the base also black: the end is rounded; upper tail coverts, 

 black; under tail coverts, white; legs, toes, and claws, black. 



The female has less black on the head; the forehead is dull 

 white; the crescent on the throat is dusky grey, and in the 

 summer it spreads up to the under bill. The greater and 



