GREY WAGTAIL, 
215 
most southern counties to breed. If we may hazard an 
opinion on the subject, in support of which we can at present 
offer no proof, it is, that when this species appears in spring 
to retire from the south, it does not leave us on so distant 
a journey as is usually supposed, but on abandoning the low 
and sheltered river sides, where it has passed the winter, 
it only retreats to upland and hilly, or more wild and unfre¬ 
quented spots, where it can in greater safety rear its young. 
A communication which appeared in a late number of the 
“ Zoologist,” from the pen of J. Heppenstall, Esq., of 
Upperthorpe, near Sheffield, seems to confirm this suppo¬ 
sition. “ The Grey Wagtail, (Tf. hoarula^y says that gen¬ 
tleman, “ resides with us all the year; in the winter season 
it is to be found along every brook, and even on the banks 
of the rivers Sheaf and Don, in the middle of our populous 
town, then, of course, in its plainer plumage. In the begin¬ 
ning of April it acquires its black throat, and then retires 
to the margins of the mountain streams on the adjacent 
moors, to breed.” We have this species in tolerable plenty 
on the banks of the Thames that border Surrey and Mid¬ 
dlesex, in autumn, as early as the middle of September, but 
never met with one in its summer garb, although nests 
and eggs that we believe to belong to this species have been 
brought to us. 
The food of this Wagtail consists of various insects, such 
as flies and other winged inhabitants of grassy river sides, 
small water beetles, &c., and the minute mollusca that abound 
in such situations. 
The nest of the Grey Wagtail is placed usually upon the 
ground, and is composed of fine grasses and fibrous roots, 
with a few feathers, and lined with a great quantity of the 
hair of cows and other animals, as well as horse-hair, which 
latter material forms the innermost, or true lining of the 
nest. The eggs, five or six in number, are of a short, oval 
