PERCHING BIRDS. 91 



Sometimes I have seen it used in such abundance as to 

 form a mass more than half an inch thick, slightly 

 felted together. I have known of two very singular 

 positions for the nest. One of them was underneath a 

 rail on a colliery railway which was in constant use, the 

 parent bird flying off on the approach of a train of coal 

 waggons, and resuming her seat on her eggs when it 

 had passed. The other was built in the bows of a ferry- 

 boat, and though the boat was constantly passing back- 

 wards and forwards, the young were successfully reared. 



The White Wagtail (M. alba, Linn.) is I believe not 

 such a stranger to our island as has been supposed. I 

 have met with it several times, most frequently in the 

 autumn and winter months. During the former season 

 they have appeared in some years abundantly, while in 

 the winter I have never seen more than one or two at a 

 time. They were very numerous in September, 1854, 

 frequenting the roads and margin of the stream running 

 through the village. In January, 1855, during a sharp 

 frost, and when the ground was covered with snow, I 

 saw on two occasions a single bird in the street opposite 

 my own house ; it was busy searching the gutters in 

 company with two or three of the pied species, and the 

 distinction between the two was strikingly seen, the 

 bluish ashen grey of the back of the white, contrasting 

 strongly with the dusky colour of that part in the pied 

 bird. 



The Grey Wagtail (M. boarula) generally visits us in 

 the winter, though it is not common. I have met with 

 it both in the neighbourhood of houses (my own court- 

 yard, for instance) and on the shallow parts of the 

 stream, and in severe frosts I have even seen it wade 

 into water as deep as it could bottom. It generally 



