( 76 ) 



THE YELLOW WAGTAIL IN THE SEINE- 

 INFERIEURE. 



BY 



The Rev. J, M. McWILLIAM. 



The distribution of the Yellow Wagtail (Moiacilla f. rayi) 

 in France seems never to have been worked out by British 

 ornithologists. Indeed it is very remarkable how little 

 attention has till lately been given by them to the parts of 

 France nearest our own shores. In the Hand-List of British 

 Birds it is stated that the Yellow Wagtail appears to breed 

 in small numbers in west France, and the latest B.O.U. 

 List of British Birds says simply that it breeds in N.W. France. 

 During the war several naturalists expressed surprise at 

 seldom or never meeting with it in various districts in the 

 war-zone. 



In the summer of 1918 I was stationed in the Havre area, 

 and had many opportunities of seeing this bird. Lemetteil, 

 in his Catalogue Raisonne des Oiseaux de la Seine-Lnferieure, 

 published in 1874, states that this is the district where it is 

 commonest. His description of its distribution leaves little 

 to be desired. He describes it as being very common and 

 widespread in the arrondissement cf Havre, while rare else- 

 where. He states, too, that the Blue-headed Wagtail, 

 {Motacilla f. fi-ava) while not rare in the west of the Seine- 

 Tnferieure, is more local there than in other parts of France. 

 He notes the differences between the two races with the 

 greatest care. 



What he has to say of the distribution of this bird was 

 exactly borne out by my experience. I saw a fair number 

 of them, obviously nesting, in the neighbourhood of Havre, 

 though I did not give the time necessary to find any nests, 

 which it would have been difficult to do. I saw the first — 

 a pair — on May 12th and on the 14th several pairs. Sub- 

 sequently I was able to go to the place for a quarter of an 

 hour or so fairly often, and during the next month or two 

 I was always able to find the Wagtail. The birds were 

 generally very tame indeed. They frequently allowed me to 

 go within ten yards of them, and it is needless to say that I 

 examined them with the greatest care, using pi ism binoculars 

 on one occasion. 



I happened also to spend several days at Etretat, about 

 fifteen miles from Havre, during the nesting season, and 

 there too, and by the roadside between the two places, I 



