GREY AND WHITE WAGTAILS IN OXFORDSHIRE. 373 



making enquiries of the miller, he said he believed there was a 

 nest of some kind there, as he had heard his children talking 

 about it. Directly we got to the place both birds appeared in the 

 greatest excitement, flying round over our heads, or settling 

 within a few yards of us in a most agitated state, their tails 

 swinging up and down and their whole bodies vibrating with 

 excitement and anxiety. In addition to the usual call-note, 

 " zit-zi," they uttered two other notes ; one a rather soft, plaintive 

 "see-eet," the other a shriller, higher-pitched " see"; generally 

 the two sounds were uttered one after the other, like a double 

 note, but with a slight interval. With the aid of a short ladder, 

 I got down to the nest, which was placed in a hole in the brick- 

 work just below, and a little to one side of, the cross-beam 

 against which the top of the eel-trap grating rested when in use, 

 and so low that it would be under water if a heavy flood was 

 coming down. The nest was a substantial structure, formed 

 chiefly of skeletonized leaves worked together, with coarse grasses 

 and a few roots, and lined with horsehair. It contained only two 

 young birds, and had probably been robbed of some of its eggs. 

 The young were just fledged on the upper parts, tails just 

 sprouting, and wing- quills very short. Upper parts uniformly 

 pale ash-grey, with a little brown mottling on the wing-coverts ; 

 at the base of the tail huffish yellow all round. Under parts just 

 feathering, and would be pale yellowish buff. We watched the 

 old ones for some time, and in the bright morning sun I thought 

 I never saw more beautiful birds as they flitted about in the lights 

 and shadows of the ash- and alder-shaded pool. No background 

 showed up their colours better than a dark yew-tree in the mill- 

 garden. Even the miller expressed his admiration of the birds ; 

 but it is significant of the slight attention paid by most people to 

 such things, that he had never noticed them before ! Though 

 still agitated, the male took some insects on the wing. This was, 

 no doubt, a second brood, as the Grey Wagtail is said to begin 

 nesting early in April, and to have two broods in the season. 



It is wonderful how very local the Grey Wagtail's habits 

 make it with us. It is seldom, except in autumn just about or 

 a little after migration time, that we see it away from its favourite 

 haunts,— mills, weirs, lashers, &c, — and even at migration time 

 water is essential ; it is the real " Water Wagtail." Then I have 

 occasionally met with it in unusual places. On the 7th October, 



