222 motacillid^;. 



bridge. They admitted of a near approach, and both with the 

 naked eye and through a telescope, I saw that they were the true 

 M. flava. They seemed to take the place of the grey wagtail 

 (M. boarula) here, as during three days spent in the district, I did 

 not, though looking particularly for them, see one of this species : 

 — such however, may have been accidental. The pied wagtail 

 {M. Yarrettii) is remarkably abundant about Toome. Having 

 known the M. flava to be seen here in different years — perhaps 

 forty have elapsed since Mr. Templeton observed it — I conclude 

 that the bird is an annual visitant. I cannot but imagine that 

 it will yet be found regularly at some other favourite localities 

 in the island. 



The observations of ornithologists in various parts of the 

 country, show that it is generally a rare species. To myself, it has 

 occurred but once in a wild state, except about Toome, on the 

 24th of June, 1832. In that instance, one was seen in a turf- 

 bog on the confines of the county of Donegal, a few miles from the 

 city of Londonderry. It has but once been met with by Wm. 

 Sinclaire, Esq., on the 28th of April, 1833, when a single 

 individual appeared, and on that day only, in an oat-field at the 

 Tails. One, shot at Einglass, near Dublin, about the 20th of 

 April, 1835, has come under my notice in the collection of T. "W. 

 Warren, Esq. A second specimen, which I have seen at Dublin, 

 was stated to have been shot in the vicinity of the custom-house 

 there, in 1837. The species is unknown to my correspondents as 

 visiting the southern counties. 



On the 8th of April, 1 841, an old male bird shot near Belfast, 

 came into my possession. A good ornithologist is certain that two 

 wagtails, seen at the shore of the bay, near that town, on the 8th 

 of August, 1846, were of this species. About the 1st of May, 

 1847, three were procured between Portadown and Verner's 

 bridge, in the county of Armagh, by the Rev. G. Robinson. 



In the month of July, I have remarked this wagtail at the 

 lakes of Hawes-water and Windermere, in England. 



About forty miles east of Malta, on the 22nd of April, 1841, 

 two of these birds flew on board H.M.S. Beacon — one of them 



