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MOTACILLA MADEKASPATENSIS. 609 



Nidification.—The breeding-season of the Indian Pied Wagtail, in most parts of India, is in March, 

 April, and May ; but, like many other birds which nest in the southern hills, it rears its young there during 

 the north-east monsoon at the end of the year. It is said always to nest in the vicinity o"f water, « but with 

 this sole reservation, that it places its nest almost anywhere. These may be found in holes in banks, crevices 

 in rocks, under stones, under clods of earth, amongst the timbers of bridges, in drains, holes in walls, on 

 roofs, in fact anywhere except on shrubs or bushes" {Hume). It appears that when these birds, like 'the 

 Common Wagtail* of England, make up their mind to build in a particular spot no amount of adverse 

 circumstances will deter them from carrying out their plans. In Mr. Hume's interesting article on the 

 nidification of this Wagtail ample testimony is given concerning the extraordinary spots chosen by it ; and 

 I append the following interesting particulars from the pen of this author :— " In the middle of the river 

 Jumna, at Agra, there is an iron buoy attached to the pontoon-bridge which is surmounted by an iron ring, 

 which lies down nearly horizontal ; and in this ring, for several successive seasons, a pair of Pied Wagtails 

 nested, within five yards of the roadway, and in full view of the thousands of passengers who daily cross the 

 bridge. In the Chumbul, a little above its junction with the Jumna, a pair built in the old ferry-boat, which 

 was but seldom used; and when the female was sitting she allowed herself to be ferried backwards and forwards, 

 the male all the while sitting on the gunwale singing, making from time to time short jerky flights over the 

 water, and returning fearlessly to his post. 



" In this latter case the nest was nothing but one of those small circular ring-pads, say 4 inches in 

 external diameter and 1 inch thick at the circumference, which the women place on their heads to enable 

 them to carry steadily their round-bottomed earthern water-vessels ; a dozen "tiny soft blades of grass had 

 been laid across the central hole, and on these, of course blending them down to the surface of the massive 

 boat-knee on which the pad had been accidentally left lying, the eggs were laid. 



" The character and materials of the nest are quite as various as are the situations in which it is placed. 

 As to character, it varies from nothing up to a neat, well-formed ( saucer ' or shallow cup ; as to materials, 

 nothing soft seems to come amiss to them : fine twigs, grass-roots, wool, feathers, horse-, cow-, and human 

 hair, string, coir, rags, and all kinds of vegetable fibres seem to be indifferently used." My late friend 

 Mr. A. Anderson writes that " a favourite situation at Futtehgur was the bridge of boats, the nests being 

 usually placed inside a pigeon-hole either at the bow or stern of a boat." The eggs are usually four in number, 

 sometimes three, and vary from a greenish or greenish-white to a pale earthy-white ground : those of the 

 former type are marked with greenish-brown streaks, spots, clouds, and specks distributed sparingly over the 

 surface, or chiefly confluent round the large end ; the latter have dingy wood-brown markings, and, as in the 

 former case, are divisible into two types — one in which the colouring takes the form of close speckling, and 

 the other close smudgy mottling (Hume) . The average size of a number of eggs is 0'9 by O60 inch. 



* It will, no doubt, be fresh in the minds of many of my readers who peruse the ' Times ' newspaper that a pair of 

 Pied Wagtails last summer (1878) built a nest on a beam beneath a third-class carriage belonging to the train which runs 

 backwards and forwards on the little loop-line connecting the Cosham and Havant stations near Portsmouth. The train 

 makes four or five trips a day ; and during the time the female was incubating her eggs she remained on them while the 

 train performed its journey, and her partner patiently sat on the telegraph-wires till she returned. I can vouch for the 

 truth of this story, as I am acquainted with the station-master from whom the particulars of the occurrence were gleaned. 



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