GREY AND WHITE WAGTAILS IN OXFORDSHIRE. 37 1 



I may add my own conviction, as to breeding-places, that, 

 unless it be in Donegal, which I have not visited, there is no 

 sea-bird colony in Ireland of the same extent as that of the 

 South Saltee, Co. Wexford. 



THE GREY AND THE WHITE WAGTAILS IN 



OXFORDSHIRE. 



By Oliver V. Aplin. 



The Grey Wagtail is for the most part a winter visitor 

 to Oxfordshire, and although it has been seen in spring and 

 summer on a good many occasions, and there is no doubt that 

 it has bred in the county twice at least, yet no nest was actually 

 discovered before the present year. 



In 1875 a pair was repeatedly seen in an osier-bed on the 

 banks of the Swere at South Newington. They frequently 

 carried food in their beaks, and were much agitated when the 

 observer came close to the osiers, but no nest could be found. 

 Last year (1889) again a pair of these most elegant birds took up 

 their quarters early in May at Barford St. Michael Mill, a few 

 miles further down the same stream. They evidently had a nest 

 in the stone-work below the flood-gates, which is very high (this 

 being an ''overshot" mill), and in a rather ruinous condition, 

 so that I was unable to make a thorough search for the nest, and 

 it remained undiscovered. 



I had this pair of birds under my observation at intervals for 

 some weeks from the 4th May until the middle of June, when it 

 appeared that the young had left the nest, and I saw some of 

 them on the banks of the stream above the mill, but as the 

 hay-grass was just ready for cutting, I could not follow them up 

 to ascertain the number of the brood. During May and early 

 June the old birds were generally to be seen running about over 

 the large stones in the rushing water below the gates ; here 

 I often had them within three or four yards of me, and had plenty 

 of opportunities of remarking the ease and agility with which they 

 captured flies on the wing over the water. All three of our 

 common English Wagtails are tame and familiar in the breeding 

 season, and extremely solicitous about their young ; but my rather 



