By Upland Streams. 27 



A scrappy little nest it is, dry grass and roots and 

 such-like litter thrown carelessly together, and lined 

 with hair or more rarely a few feathers; artless, yet 

 possessing a rustic beauty if wanting that elaborate 

 finish of more painstaking nest-builders. The five 

 or six eggs are as unassuming as the nest that 

 holds them, grayish- white freckled with brown, and 

 perhaps with here and there a scratch of darker 

 hue. The bird is an early breeder, making its nest 

 in April, although we have remarked that in Scotland 

 it is a little later in its operations. This pretty 

 Wagtail still further endears itself to us by its 

 attachment to a certain breeding-place, returning in 

 many cases year by year to build its nest in one 

 particular spot. Unfortunately the Gray Wagtail 

 can claim but low rank as a songster. None of our 

 British Wagtails are singers of much merit, and all 

 confine their melody to fitful and short snatches of 

 rambling song, almost invariably uttered as the bird 

 hovers and flutters in the air. The Gray Wagtail's 

 charm rests in its pretty dress, its graceful actions, 

 and to some extent in its loneliness, for there are 

 few other small birds to arrest attention in the 

 haunts it loves. It can claim our almost undivided 

 admiration on the streams of the uplands from one 

 extreme corner of Great Britain to the other. Cer- 

 tainly of few other birds can we say so much; al- 

 though such an extended distribution is entirely 



