6 
distributed. Von Middendorff observed it in May in the Stanowoi Mountains, and found it also 
common on the coast of the Sea of Ochotsk. Mr. Maack obtained it as far north in Siberia as 
Wilni, in about 63°-64° N. lat.; and Von Schrenck records it as one of the commonest species 
of Wagtails throughout the Amoor country. Dr. G. Radde says that he frequently met with it 
in the Eastern Sajan and the Daurian elevated steppes, but seldom on the Central Amoor and in 
the woods near the Baikal Lake. At the Tarei-nor the first arrived on the 5th of May (old style), 
and in the autumn they had nearly all disappeared on the 4th September. Pére David observed 
it in Mongolia; and Mr. Swinhoe met with it in China, on the island of Formosa, and at Hainan, 
during the winter season, when, he says, it was common. ‘Temminck and Schlegel record it 
from Japan; and Captain Blakiston states (Ibis, 1862, p. 318) that he obtained a specimen at 
Hakodadi in August. It has been met with in Asia at least as far south as Java, whence I 
possess a specimen; and Mr. Davison states (Stray Feathers, 11. p. 237) that he observed about 
half a dozen on the Andaman Islands and one on the Nicobars.. Lord Walden, in his paper on 
the ornithology of the Philippines, says that he has specimens from Luzon, Zebu, Malacca, 
and Java. 
During the summer season the Grey Wagtail is essentially a mountain bird, frequenting the 
rocky burns and small swift-running brooks that rise out of the mountains and flow down to the 
plains. I have never seen it away from the water, and never in the plains themselves, though it 
is met with in the mountain-slopes on the very edge of the latter. In Staufen, near Freiburg, I 
observed it this summer in the town itself, through which a stream runs, and in all the small 
streams which flow from the adjacent mountains; but about a mile out of the town, in the valley 
of the Rhine, it was no longer met with, being replaced by Motacilla alba. Though a somewhat 
shy bird, especially when it finds itself pursued, it frequently builds in inhabited places, such as 
water-mills, and I could always watch from the window of the inn where I was staying in the 
middle of the town a female carrying food to her young, which were somewhere in an old mill 
adjoining the inn. Before I left, the young had left the nest, and were to be seen on the banks 
of the brook below the town, where I shot one for examination. I have several times taken the 
nest of the present species, which I have generally found either under an overhanging bank close 
by the water-side, or else under a stone bridge, in a convenient cranny amongst the stones: but 
it sometimes breeds far distant from the water; for Mr. Cecil Smith informs me that he took a 
nest in a stone wall in Somersetshire at a considerable distance from water, and Mr. Carl Sachse 
found a nest near Altenkirchen, in Rhenish Prussia, fully eight hundred yards from the nearest 
water. Writing to me respecting the habits of this species as observed by him there, he says :— 
“it always frequents running water, especially where the water is shallow and the bed of the 
brook is stony. When not pursued it can scarcely be called shy ; but if it finds itself watched it 
will go miles away from its usual haunts. Its call-note is sz¢szz or zsz, rather sharply uttered. 
I have frequently examined the stomachs of specimens I shot, and have always found them to 
contain flies, gnats, water-insects, and larvee of various kinds. It frequents the same localities as 
the Dipper, and appears at its nesting-place in March. It breeds twice in the season, but does 
not raise the second brood in the same nest which has served for the first. I have taken its eggs, 
from four to six in number, from the 10th April to the 19th June; and from one pair I took 
four clutches of eggs, and they laid again for the fifth time in the season and reared their young. 
