V A Chapter on Wagtails 109 



These most charming birds come to Oxford about 

 the middle of April.^ They come up the river, and 

 gather in great numbers on that vast meadow above 

 the city known as Port Meadow; which almost 

 deserves a chapter to itself, so interesting is its 

 history, so rich its treasures of birds and plants, and 

 so various its aspect in flood and frost, under sun- 

 shine and shower. Here, on the 26th of April 1887, 

 I saw a more wonderful gathering of Yellow Wag- 

 tails than I have ever seen since, or am likely ever to 

 see again. Mr. Arthur Macpherson had come into 

 my rooms the evening before, to tell me that he had 

 seen some Dunlins on the bank of the Isis, where it 

 bounds this great meadow to the west. As these 

 birds of the sea-shore had never before been reported 

 to me, I started the next afternoon, hindered and 

 baffled by a strong and bitter wind which soon 

 turned to pelting rain, and by a toothache which 

 raged in sympathy with the elements ; but I was 

 rewarded for my pains. I found the Dunlins ; but 

 I found also what was far more wonderful and 

 beautiful — the whole length of the river's bank, on 

 the meadow side of it, occupied by countless Yellow 

 Wagtails. As I walked along they got up literally 



1 They are apt, like some other migrants, to appear earlier in 

 the west country : I have seen one at "Westward Ho on 4th April, 

 in company with newly-arrived Pied Wagtails in brilliant plumage. 

 The latest date in the autumn I have a record of is 10th October. 



