202 BRITISH BIRDS 



Can any of your readers inform me where the original 

 specimen is ? I do not recollect seeing it in the Booth 

 Museum. 



If this example should prove to be referable to Aedon 

 familiaris — which I strongly suspect — the specimen recorded 

 by Mr. J. B. Nichols in your January number (Vol. I., p. 257) 

 is the second recorded example of this form in the British 

 Islands. 



M. J. NiCOLL. 



[Borrer states that the bird was moulting, and that the 

 feathers on the back and tail, " especially the central ones of 

 the latter, are much worn " {Birds of Sussex, p. 64), which may 

 account for the colouring of these feathers. If correctly 

 coloured the bird in the plate appears too dark on the back for 

 A. familiaris. — Eds.] 



WHITE WAGTAIL INTERBREEDING WITH PIED 



WAGTAIL IN DEVONSHIRE. 

 On April 8th last I noticed a White W^agtail on my lawn (near 

 Sidmouth). It only stayed a short time, though I was able to 

 get a good view of it. As it did not put in an appearance again 

 I imagined it to be only a traveller, but early in June I met 

 with a bird, which may have been the same one, at the other 

 end of the village. I watched it for some time feeding in a 

 roadside ditch outside some farm buildings, after which I 

 lost it. It was back at the same place about an hour later, 

 tliis time accompanied by a male Pied Wagtail, A\itli which 

 pairing took place. It w^as not till June 13th that I was able 

 to find the nest, which was situated in the stump of an old 

 straw rick, and contained six eggs. I took these on the 

 I4th, as the rick was to be thrown down on the following day. 

 They only differ from Pied Wagtails' eggs with which I have 

 been able to compare them, in having the surface markings 

 brown without any shade of grey, and bolder in character. 

 The bird appeared to me to be less suspicious than the Pied 

 Wagtail usually is, and did not hesitate to go back to its nest 

 while under observation. 



It may be well to add that I have had opportunities for 

 watching White Wagtails at close quarters in Scotland, and 

 that a pair of Pied Wagtails were nesting in the ivy of my 

 house at the same time as the pair above recorded were nesting 

 inlthe rick, so that I had good opportunities for comparing 

 the hen Pied with the hen Wliite Wagtail. The sharply 

 defined black hood of the latter and the pure grey colour of 

 >its back and upper tail-coverts were most distinctive. 



Amyas W. Champernowne. 



