PIED WAGTAIL 105 



the Sussex coast about the middle of March, the old males first, the 

 females and the males of the previous year a few days later. They 

 are sometimes seen in large numbers near the coast, resting after 

 their voyage before proceeding inland. The return migration takes 

 place at the end of August or early in September. 



Meadows and pasture-lands in the neighbourhood of a running 

 stream are favourite resorts of the wagtail, and it is fond of attend- 

 ing cattle for the sake of the numbers of insects driven from their 

 shelter in the grass by the grazing animals. 



The pied wagtail is not so lively, quick, and graceful as the 

 yellow and the grey species ; but if you watch him for any length of 

 time he, too, gives you the idea of a creature that never continues 

 in the same mind for a minute at a time, but acts according to 

 the impulse of the moment, and is as unstable as a ball of thistle- 

 down. He runs, then stands, and shakes his tail ; for two or 

 three moments he searches for food ; then chases an insect, and is 

 still again, waiting for a new impulse to move him : suddenly he 

 flies away, not straight, as if with an object in view, but with a 

 curving, dipping, erratic flight, governed seemingly by no will ; and 

 just as suddenly alighting again, when he is once more seen standing 

 still and shaking his tail. The call-note, a sharp chirp of two 

 syllables, is emitted once or twice during flight. The song is a loud, 

 hurried warble, uttered on the wing as the bird hovers at a moderate 

 height from the ground. But the pied wagtail has another way 

 of singing, especially in early spring : this is a warble so low that 

 at the distance of fifteen yards it is just audible, and is sometimes 

 uttered continuously for two or three minutes at a stretch. 



The nest is made, as a rule, in a hollow or cavity in the ground, 

 or in a crevice or hole hi a bank or rock, or under a stone, or at 

 the roots of a furze-bush. It is built of fine dry grass, moss, and 

 various other materials, and lined with hair and feathers. The eggs 

 are four or five, pale bluish in tint, and spotted with greyish brown. 



Grey Wagtail. 

 Motacilla melanope. 



Summer plumage : head and back bluish grey ; a pale streak 

 over the eye ; throat black ; under parts bright yellow. Winter 

 plumage : chin and throat whitish, passing into yellow. Length, 

 seven inches and a half. 



