V ■ A Chapter on Wagtails i o S 



September; and I need only refer to Mr. Knox's 

 Ornithological Rambles in Sussex for a well-known 

 and admirable account of their journeying in that 

 district. Somewhat further eastward they cross the 

 Channel, and some' at least then go southward along 

 the French coast, 'for we catch a glimpse of them 

 again in Portugal. Mr. W. C. Tait in the Ihis for 

 1887 tells us that this species "arrives in the 

 neighbourhood of Oporto about the 20th of October, 

 winters here, moults to summer plumage in March, 

 and departs." ■* 



Once arrived on the Continent, they must find 

 themselves comparative strangers : for though they 

 are among their own kin, the White Wagtails, they 

 do not seem to be always received with the hos- 

 pitality due to near relations. Mr. Tait goes on 

 to tell us that he has seen Pied Wagtails attacked 

 on their arrival by the resident White Wagtails, who 

 looked on them as intruders. Yet these two species 

 — incomplete they may be as species, yet something 

 more than mere races or varying forms — will some- 

 times associate, and even mate, together. The 

 White Wagtail, which is a pretty constant visitor to 

 this country in spring, may sometimes find himself 

 (or herself) without a mate, and take up with a Pied 

 Wagtail in default of his own kind. Such a pair 

 were found in Norfolk by Lord Walsingham, and 

 1 Vol. V. No. 18, p. 186. 



