THE PIED WAGTAIL. 215 



ing, that have attained a considerable size. These trees were 

 selected by a prodigious number of wagtails for the purpose of 

 roosting, which they did for four or five nights consecutively. 

 Their numbers were so great, and the noise they created so loud 

 as to attract Mr. Shaw's attention, and that of almost all the in- 

 habitants of Portlaw. They weighed down the branches to the 

 surface of the water, and when nearly immersed would rise like 

 a cloud and then alight again : after remaining a few nights they 

 suddenly disappeared. They were the pied wagtail. The birds 

 which were reared in the vicinity of the works did not join the 

 mass, but kept aloof and retired to their usual roosting place. 

 They appeared about the works in the morning as usual — indeed, 

 the day I was there, I saw a few very busy ' fly-catching ' on the 

 edge of the cistern placed on the top of the building, which is 

 six stories high." Dr. Farran, at my request, wrote for further 

 information, and received the following from Dr. Martin, dated, 

 Portlaw, Dec. the 3rd, 1843: — "I have made close inquiries re- 

 lating to the movements of the wagtails, from several of our 

 work-people, remarkable for their sharp observation of the habits 

 of animals, and they all concur in stating the number assembled 

 on the island, to have been enormous, about one or two thousand. 

 Smaller numbers still meet every night and do so during the win- 

 ter. The men also say that such meetings were never remarked 

 here before last year, but one of them remembers observing a 

 similar assemblage at Loughcrew, in the county of Meath." 



Sir W. Jardine* and Mr. Macgillivray,t — who give very full 

 and good descriptions of the habits of the species, — mention its 

 collecting together in flocks, which take their departure even from 

 " the middle and southern parts of Scotland," though some re- 

 main throughout the winter; and that again a migratory move- 

 ment northwards is made very early in spring, when they spread 

 themselves over the whole of the country, and the Outer Hebri- 

 des. (Macg.) A few certainly may leave the north of Ireland, 

 but throughout the winter they are numerous : after frost of some 



* Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 194. t Vol. ii. p. 230. 



