310 INSECTIVOILE. 



insects, and larvae. They nestle chiefly in rocky banks, 

 seldom in any vegetable cover. Nest like the former, eggs 

 not exceeding six, larger than those of the former, yellowish- 

 white, and mottled with brighter blotches. The first brood 

 is usually fledged by about the first of June, and the second 

 (when they have two) about the middle of July ; but in the 

 most northerly places, they seldom have more than one 

 brood, which is fledged about the end of June. In the north, 

 they are, of course, summer wagtails ; and they take their 

 departure earlier than the pied, though some of them linger 

 by the rims of the deep-seated springs, and may continue 

 there during the winter, in more northerly places than they 

 have yet been found in at that season. 



It does not appear that they ever summer or nestle in the 

 south ; and it is worthy of remark, that these indigenous 

 water-insect consuming birds retire northwards in summer, 

 and leave the waters of the south and south-east to the 

 aquatic warblers. These resident insectivorse are suited to 

 the open air, and the warblers to the shade ; and accordingly, 

 they alternate with each other in the seasons. The warblers 

 retire to climates in which they find shade in the winter ; and 

 the resident birds betake themselves to the north in the sum- 

 mer, where the deep shade and the rank vegetation by the 

 sides of the pools and streams do not interfere with their 

 pedestrian habits. 



THE YELLOW WAGTAIL (Motadlla flavd). 



The name of this bird, though accurate enough as to the 

 under part being more entirely yellow than that of most 

 birds, is an inapplicable one, and apt to produce confusion ; 

 for it really has less yellow upon it than the summer plumage 

 of the species called yrey, the rump not being yellow, but a 

 dull yellowish-green ; and the habits of the bird are less 

 those of the pied wagtail, which we naturally (being most 



