44



BRITISH BIRDS WE HAVE KEPT.


II.


THE YELLOW WAGTAIL.


Bv Arthur G. Butter, Ph. D.


The Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla raii, Bonap.; frequents brickfields,

especially when they have long lain disused and the inequalities have been

converted by winter rains into pools of water; also arable land and saltings.

In such places in Kent I have frequently met with it; once or twice in

company with its very rare relative the Grey-headed Wagtail,* a bird having

no real affinity to the Grey Wagtail (any more than to the Pied or White

species) beyond the accident of its having a good deal of yellow in it9

colouring.


The natural food of the Yellow Wagtail consists of insects and their

larvae, woodlice, small mollusks and small fish ; the nest is constructed of

dried grasses and rootlets, and is lined with finer rootlets, horse-hair and

fine grass-bents, or sometimes with green moss, rabbits’ or sheeps’ wool.

The eggs vary in number from four to six, of a light greyish or greenish

stone-colour ; usually unmarked, but sometimes densely speckled with grey,

somewhat after the manner of the eggs of the Pied Wagtail. Breeding-season,

end of Mavaud June. I have found a favourite site for the nest to be under

a large grass tussock or plantain, growing on the sides of a long-deserted and

overgrown gravel-pit; also in a hole in a bank, shelving down to some little

frequented narrow footpath.


As a cage-bird, this summer immigrant is well-known ; when first

caught, it is somewhat wild and sulky ; but if turned loose in an aviary with

other insectivorous birds, it soon begins to feed, and becomes accustomed

to its surroundings. If, however, the bird is intended for the show-bench,

the task of its owner is not so easy: in a cage the bird will probably sulk

for at least a day, eating nothing that may be offered to it: it must be placed

in a box-cage with a piece of muslin fastened tightly over the front to

prevent the bird from cutting its face ; inside the cage must be placed a pan

of water and two small open pans, one containing some form of egg-food,

the other a dozen or so of lively mealworms : the bird when thoroughly

hungry commences with the worms ; but afterwards, in its search for more,

pecks at the soft-food which it finally devours. When once it has tasted

the latter, it is safe; but no attempt must be made to remove the muslin

until the bird has become somewhat accustomed to confinement.


Personally, I prefer aviaries for insectivorous birds, it always seems

hard to confine these graceful little things in cages after they have known

freedom ; one does not feel the same thing with regard to finches, and we

know (as a matter of fact) that, after the first moult, all these birds become

perfectly reconciled to their fate, just as though they had been reared from

the nest; nevertheless, constant association with birds makes us look upon

them as brethren, with similar thoughts and memories to our own ; we grow

poetical and fanciful, and are startled when we decide to set a prisoner free

and find that he will not stir from his cage, but cries plaintively to have the

door shut upon him — an experience I once had with a Blackbird!


My first Yellow Wagtail died soon after it was brought to me (I suspect

the bird-catcher had half starved the poor thing before he brought it to

me); the second was a well-seasoned bird, given to me by a gentleman,

who had already kept it for some time; this is the bird of which I have

already spoken as having passed a winter without any artificial heat, and

having rendered himself so objectionable to my Grey Wagtail last spring,

that I had to cage him : he died in the autumn, a short time after I had

acquired a hen of his species, which is now living amicably with the Grey

species in my cold aviary. Their only other companions are a Redstart and

three Blossom-headed Parrakeets.



*\ received a nest of the latter with six eggs, taken from the short wiry grass on the

saltings at Kemsley near Sheppy, in May, 1885 : both nest and eggs nearly resemble those

of the ordinary Yellow Wagtail, but the short description of the mother bird sent with them

clearly indicated the Grey-headed species, which I had also seen within a mile or two of

Kemsley the previous year.



