178 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



in a wall just above water, or a crevice in a rock; but it sometimes places it in 

 gnarled roots of trees, in faggot- stacks, in ivy on the top of a low wall, and I 

 once took one formed in a deserted Blackbird's nest built in ivy on the top of the 

 trunk of a branchless oak. Nidification lasts from April to June, but most nests 

 may be found towards the end of May : indeed my experience would incline me 

 to regard none of the Wagtails as early breeders, though forward individuals may 

 be ready to nest in April. 



The nest is constructed of dry bents, rootlets, and a little moss, and is thickly 

 lined with wool, or feathers and hair : it is somewhat large and shallow in character, 

 frequently with one side higher than the other, if it be possible for a circular 

 rim to have sides. The eggs vary in number from four to six, the latter being 

 a frequent clutch ; in colouring they are tolerably uniform, differing chiefly in the 

 paler or darker ground tint (though it is always light) and more or less heavy 

 speckling at the larger end ; the ground colour is either a greenish- white or pale 

 greenish -grey, the speckling is grey or smoky brown (a few of the dots often 

 approaching black) some of the markings being more prominent than others. The 

 House- Sparrow sometimes lays a similar egg, only generally of a more elongated 

 shape. 



The Pied Wagtail is largely insectivorous ; but, in addition to insects, their 

 larvae, spiders, centipedes, and (according to the late Mr. Booth) the ova of a small 

 crab, I believe that in the winter seeds are swallowed by it. At any rate this is 

 certainly the case in an aviary, though not often. 



In September, 1888, I purchased my first captive Pied Wagtail from a bird- 

 catcher. It was decidedly a domineering bird, and was long before it became 

 tame, knocking out all its tail-feathers in the first few months of its confinement 

 in a large aviary, nor did it recover them until the following July : it lived 

 about eighteen months, after it had starved my hen Grey Wagtail to death by 

 incessantly driving it from the soft food. 



In June or July, 1892, a nest of six of these birds was shown to me in a field 

 a short distance from my house ; the site for the nest was rather curious : a 

 number of boards had been piled up near a fence by the builder who owned the 

 ground, and when he wished to utilise them he discovered the nest built below 

 one which had been tilted up. I examined the nest and found that the young 

 were just ready to take, but hesitated to secure them, as my holiday was almost at 

 an end, and the duty of feeding would devolve upon my wife. I therefore crossed 

 the field and with a field- glass watched the parents arriving incessantly with food 

 for about an hour: they appeared to have an un visual amount of white on the neck 

 and I took them at first for White Wagtails, but the young were certainly Pied. 



