408 MOTACILLID A. 
generally made in September and April. It is even rather 
more an aquatic bird than our Pied Wagtail, being seldom 
seen except about marshes and water meadows, or on the 
banks or sides of streams. In such situations, and some- 
what solitary in their habits, a pair of Grey Wagtails may 
be seen, shifting from place to place with undulating flight, 
or running with rapid steps along the margin of, and some- 
times wading in, the shallow water in search of various 
insects, and are known to avail themselves of one very 
numerous species of fresh-water bivalve, Cyclas cornea of 
Dr. Turton, as food. These birds have been also observed 
to run upon the tops of the weeds, which are partly sub- 
merged in the ditches, and probably feed upon the various 
species of water-beetles, Dyticus and Gyrinus, which are 
almost always to be found in those situations, 
The nest of this bird is placed on the ground, seldom 
very distant from the stream it frequents, and generally on 
some rugged part of its banks, the inequalities of the ground 
affording concealment. The structure of the nest is similar 
to that of the Pied Wagtail, last noticed, beg formed of 
fibrous roots and moss, lined with wool, hair, or feathers. 
The eggs are from five to six in number, yellowish white, 
mottled with pale brown, varying sometimes in the depth of 
the tint ; the eggs are about eight lines and a half in length, 
and seven lines in breadth. Mr. Selby has observed that 
these birds produce two broods in the season, the first of 
which is generally fledged by the end of May. The young 
birds, till late in autumn, may be frequently seen in com- 
pany with their parents. 
In the counties around London, the Grey Wagtail is a 
winter visitor ; but Mr. Blyth has recorded that he “ once 
observed a pair of them upon Penge Common in Kent, at 
the end of May, that evidently had a nest in the neighbour- 
