196 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A VE S. 



The Nuptial "Play" or "Display" of the Yellowhammer and Pied 

 Wagtail. — Never having met with any description of the behaviour 

 during courtship of the males of either of these birds, I have thought 

 that the following notes might be acceptable to some of the readers of 

 'The Zoologist ' :— On May 22nd, 1908, at Farnham, Suffolk, I noticed 

 a pair of Yellowhammers in the middle of the road. The male was 

 moving along the ground close to his mate, and was holding up his 

 wings high above his back, as a Redshank often does for a short time 

 after alighting. This year (1913), on April 27th, I saw a pair of Pied 

 Wagtails on a bare plot of ground, and only a few yards off. The 

 male kept approaching and moving partly round the female, bowing 

 to her repeatedly, much after the manner of a cock Pigeon or Dove 

 (the Barbary or Laughing Dove in particular), but the action was 

 performed in a rather more jerky manner, and was somewhat lacking 

 in that courtly grace with which the male Dove makes his obeisance, 

 the head being held to the ground for scarcely an instant, but raised 

 at once in readiness for the next bow. The performance was repeated 

 very rapidly, the little bird each time drawing himself up to his full 

 height, and so making himself look very long and slim. The down- 

 ward movement was made with such energy as to bring to mind the 

 actions of a Nuthatch hammering at a nut. — G. T. Rope. 



