1 16 Slimmer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



In this island it is always resident ; ■' but here, 

 and apparently in all countries where it dwells, it 

 desires a change of scene, and perhaps of food, in 

 autumn. In the lower and flatter lands it is rarely 

 seen in spring and summer ; in Oxfordshire it seldom 

 fails to appear in September or even earlier, and as 

 regularly leaves us in January or February.^ Now 

 and again a pair will stay to breed by some lock or 

 mill-dam, where they find the constant rush of water 

 which they so dearly love ; but only once, so far as 

 I know, has the nest been actually found in our 

 county. In June 1890, during the same walk 

 which showed us the Pied and White WagtaUs 

 interbreeding, Mr. Aplin and I were passing 

 another mill, when I caught sight of a long tail 

 moving up and down by the water-side under the 

 long herbage. A Gray Wagtail in June meant a 

 nest for certain, and we found it almost at once in 

 the wall of the mill -rush ; two eggs had been 

 hatched, and the nestlings were ash-gray above, and 

 distinctly yellow beneath. While we were looking 

 at them the parents continued to dance in the air 



1 I have little doubt, however, that some cross to the Continent 

 every autumn. They appear regularly in September on the coast 

 of Dorset, in a dry chalky country which they would never 

 patronise but on a jouruey. 



^ It is a melancholy fact that we have seen less of them the 

 last year or two ; last winter (1893-4) I hardly saw one. I am 

 quite unable to account for this ; certainly it is not due to 

 persecution. 



