PIED WAGTAIL. 
211 
and alighting upon a railing or clod of earth, watches it 
with jealous attention ; and presently, when the danger is 
past, with one or two efforts of her springing flight she is 
returned again. 
The nest of this species is a very thick, close, and elastic 
structure, composed of a great quantity of fibrous roots and 
stalks of grasses, intermixed with tufts of vegetable down, 
and the hair or fur of animals, and sometimes a few large 
feathers : these feathers are not used as a lining, but on close 
investigation may be seen in the interior of the vegetable 
wall. The inside is thickly lined with thistle down ; and 
lastly with hair, ehiefly that of the cow. When complete, 
the nest is capacious and rather shallow ; the eggs are five 
or six in number, and of a long oval form : the gi-ound-co- 
lour is delicate bluish-white, tinged occasionally with a yel¬ 
lowish or greenish hue, and sprinkled over with pale grey 
and dusky spots ; these are usually scattered equally over 
the whole surface, but in some specimens they are found con¬ 
fined to a zone around the larger end : an egg thus marked 
is represented in the accompanying Plate, fig. 85. 
After they leave the nest, the young birds of this species 
remain with their parents during the rest of the summer and 
autumn ; and from the disparity of their plumage may rea¬ 
dily be distinguished. 
When they first begin to run about, their plumage ex¬ 
hibits none of the black marking that distinguishes the adult, 
and the white portions are obscured by a greyish tinge, the 
crescent upon the breast, which later in the season is well 
defined, is at this time only indicated by a few dark featheis 
which appear upon the greyish-white breast. 
After the autumnal moult the colours become more dis- 
tinet, and the crescent upon the breast is black ; still no 
black appears either upon the head or back, which remain of 
one equal tint of ash-colour, in some specimens strongly tinged 
