372 TttE ZOOLOGISt. 



limited experience leads me to think that the present species is even 

 tamer and bolder than the other two. Yet I have sometimes known 

 the plaintive mobbing cry of Bay's Wagtail become almost pain- 

 fully monotonous when walking along the meadows in June, and 

 I have seen the Pied Wagtail throwing itself about almost defiantly 

 on the gravel within a couple of yards of my feet when examining 

 a nest of young. But this nest was built in the ivy on a stone 

 ledge just over the front door, and familiarity had perhaps bred 

 some degree of contempt on the Wagtail's part for the human in- 

 habitants of the house. However, these are exceptional instances 

 in the case of common birds, and on each of the only two occa- 

 sions on which I have approached the nest of the Grey Wagtail 

 I have found them remarkably fearless. 



The Grey Wagtail is very fond of perching on trees ; the 

 Barford pair were often to be seen in the willows overhanging 

 the water, as also on the old apple-trees in the adjoining orchard. 

 In winter the Grey Wagtail, when disturbed, generally flies up 

 into a willow, if there is one near. The Swere is a very quick 

 stream in places, — quite noisy occasionally, — and has generally a 

 pretty rapid fall, so that it naturally commends itself to the Grey 

 Wagtail, whose love of running water is notorious. On the 30th 

 March last I saw a beautiful Grey Wagtail in spring dress close 

 to Barford Mill, and hoped they were going to breed there again, 

 as our winter birds generally leave the spots they have haunted 

 all the season soon after the beginning of that month ; and, 

 although I have not seen one there since, I think it highly 

 probable that they have nested somewhere outside the couple of 

 miles of that stream along which I walk when fishing. The 

 Sorbrook, on the other hand, below where its three heads meet 

 at Broughton Castle, has — partly on account of the number of 

 mills on it— a sluggish current. Yet the mills themselves attract 

 the birds. I saw one on the wing over the stream at lower Grove 

 Mill on the 20th April last, and it was on this stream that the 

 first Oxfordshire Grey Wagtail's nest was discovered. 



On the 25th June last Mr. W. Warde Fowler and I were 

 walking past the upper Bloxham Grove Mill when he drew my 

 attention to a Grey Wagtail on the opposite bank of the pool 

 below the flood-gates. I was pretty sure that if the pair were 

 breeding there the nest was to be found somewhere in the brick- 

 work of the flood-gates shoot, in the mill-garden.j Upon our 



