374 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



1883, I saw two on the stones of the pond-bay at Clattercote ; 

 and in the following autumn, when the water was let down, a bird 

 haunted a runnel, formed by one of the feeding-springs through 

 the exposed mud, from the 8th to the 22nd November, often in 

 company with some late-staying Green Sandpipers. I have also 

 met with it on the shelving banks of the Cherwell, in the parish 

 of Bodicote, where for a short distance the river runs rather 

 quickly; the last occasion being on the 26th December, 1889. 

 Solitary as the bird generally is in winter, I once saw five close 

 together near the same place, on the 14th November, 1879 ; but 

 probably these were passing either up or down the stream, perhaps 

 to Oxford, where, near the Cherwell's mouth, they have a well- 

 loved station which has been immortalized. Last winter the 

 Grey Wagtail was unusually common in North Oxfordshire. 

 I noticed them on the Swere, in Bloxham parish, and at Barford ; 

 on the Sorbrook, at Wickham, Broughton, and Broughton Fulling 

 Mills ; and on the Cherwell. The bird at Wickham was frequently 

 to be seen in a shallow running ditch, somewhat impregnated by 

 the farm-yard, skirting the high road. It was there, to my know- 

 ledge, from mid-January until the 8th March, and in the cold 

 weather in February grew extremely tame. 



The date of the assumption of the black throat in spring 

 seems to vary in different individuals. One which I examined, 

 killed in Northamptonshire on the 20th February, 1889, was 

 moulting the feathers of the throat, which was quite as much 

 black as white. On the 30th March last a bird I saw had a good 

 black throat ; but, on the other hand, a male shot at Rainworth, 

 Nottinghamshire, on the 28th March, 1887, and given to me by 

 Mr.Whitaker, has only one or two dark feathers on one side of 

 its throat. 



No one who is acquainted with that clear chalk stream, the 

 Buckinghamshire Chess, need wonder that the Grey Wagtail 

 should breed regularly at Chenies (* Birds of Berks and Bucks,' 

 p. 2G; and Gould, Contr. Orn. 1849, p. 137). I looked out 

 sharply for it last May at Chenies Mill, the haunt of great trout, 

 but I could not search the most likely spot — i.e. the mill-tail ; 

 I believe, however, I heard the bird's note. A chalk stream, or 

 clear gravel-bedded river, is always dear to the Grey Wagtail. 

 In the middle of last September I fell in with two or three birds 

 so far south as Winchester, where they were tripping over the 



