98 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



The nest may occasionally be found by the side of a ditch, 

 or in a tuft of rushes on the levels, but more frequently in 

 the corn-fields, where it places it in an open furrow, or any 

 little depression in the ground, and the few I have seen have 

 been constructed of dead grass and small roots. It is stated, 

 however, in Yarrell's 'British Birds' (vol. i. p. 565) that 

 Mr. Hewitson mentions a nest composed of green moss and 

 grass, lined with rabbits' fur. In the autumn, it greatly 

 frequents the open grass-fields. I have, at this season, often 

 seen, in the Heufield levels, very large flocks of mingled old 

 and young, busily engaged in picking up their food in tlie 

 large drifts of debris left on the subsidence of a flood. I 

 have found in their interior considerable quantities of small 

 fresh^vater and land shells, of which such a locality affords 

 a large supply. I have no recollection of ever having heard 

 this Wagtail sing, but, respecting its note,^t is stated in 

 Yarrell's ' British Birds ' (vol. i. p. 566) :— " The call of this 

 bird is more shrill than that of the Pied Wagtail, but less 

 so than that of the Grey species, and consists of two notes 

 repeated in succession, the second of which, in its musical 

 scale, is a whole note lower than the first. The song of the 

 cock is lively, but short, and not often uttered." 



The earliest plumage of this bird is totally different from 

 that of the adult, and is admirably represented by Mr, Booth 

 in his ' Rough Notes.' 



In Sussex it is generally known as the " Barley-Bird," 

 probably because it arrives about the time of the spring 

 sowing of that grain. 



