MOTACILLIDA, 129 
THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
MOoTACILLA RAI (Bonaparte). 
The Yellow Wagtail is a regular summer-visitor to the British 
Islands, arriving early in April, and leaving again in September. In 
Cornwall and Devon it is chiefly seen on migration, though it nests 
in the latter; but from Somersetshire onwards, it is generally 
distributed throughout England as a breeding-species in wet 
meadows and other suitable situations. In Wales it is local, and 
chiefly noticed on migration. In Scotland it has nested as far as 
Perthshire, and perhaps up to the south-west of the Great Glen, but is 
rarely found beyond the latter ; while a wanderer has been obtained 
in North Ronay, Outer Hebrides, and the bird is said to have 
occurred in the Shetlands. In Ireland it breeds regularly about 
Lough Neagh, in Ulster, as well as on Loughs Corrib, Mask and 
Carra, in Connaught; the nest has also been obtained once near 
Dublin, where the species occurs on migration, as it has done in 
co. Wexford (Ussher). 
Although the Yellow Wagtail has occurred on Heligoland, 
Borkum, and the coast of Holland, it is only west of Belgium that 
it is known as a regular visitor, while even in the north of France 
the Blue-headed Wagtail prevails in the breeding-season as far as 
Dieppe. Westward our Yellow Wagtail is said to predominate ; 
and on passage it visits the south of France and both sides of 
the Iberian Peninsula with great regularity, though only of rare and 
M 
