278 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



One winter, a few years ago, I was staying for 

 a few days at a cottage facing Silchester Common, 

 and on going out after breakfast to feed the birds 

 I particularly noticed a male grey wagtail among 

 those that came to me, on account of its beauty 

 and tameness. Every morning I fed it, and on 

 my speaking to my landlady about it she said, 

 "Oh, we know that bird well; this is the fourth 

 winter it has spent with us, but it always came 

 before with its mate. The poor little thing had 

 only one leg, but managed to hop about and feed 

 very well; this year the poor thing didn't turn up 

 with its mate, so we suppose it had met its death 

 somewhere during the summer." 



I have often watched the gatherings of pied 

 wagtails (always with a certain number of the 

 grey species among them) in places where they 

 spend the winter in our southern counties, at some 

 spot where they are accustomed to congregate 

 each evening to hold a sort of frolic before going 

 to roost, and it has always appeared to me that 

 the birds, both pied and grey, were in pairs. So 

 too, in watching the starlings day after day in 

 the field in front of my window. Well able with 

 my binocular to observe them closely, I saw much 



