BIRDS 111 



on the banks of the Ellen, near Maryport, in the last week of 

 April 1848 ; and that Dodd, a Carlisle bird-stuffer, shot a speci- 

 men on the Eden at Carlisle, May 2d, 1848. Of later occurrences, 

 Mr. Dickinson saw two White Wagtails on the Irthing in the 

 spring of 1850. Mr. F. D. Power saw two White Wagtails near 

 Cleator Moor on April 11th, 1874. Mr. W. Hodgson identified 

 a White Wagtail near Hutton John in April 1880. I saw a 

 White Wagtail on the Caldew in April 1883, and another at 

 Rose Castle in the following April. I have since seen several 

 others. Indeed, since the attention of the Messrs. Mann was 

 called to the distinction between this and the Pied Wagtail, 

 they have recognised White Wagtails near Allonby almost every 

 spring. But though the fact that the White Wagtail visits at 

 least the Cumbrian portion of our area every spring has been 

 abundantly proved, its appearances are almost exclusively 

 limited to the vernal passage. The only autumn occurrences 

 known to me are those of a single bird which I observed on 

 Burgh Marsh, September 5th, 1885, and of another which 

 Greenwell shot at Alston in the autumn of 1866. 



PIED WAGTAIL. 



Motacilla lugubris, Temm. 



A few Pied Wagtails haunt our river-banks at every season, 

 but the species is chiefly a summer visitant. The birds which 

 breed with us only represent a small proportion of the numbers 

 which visit us en passage in autumn, many of the latter being 

 young birds. In the spring of the year the old males are the 

 first to arrive, generally in March, in which month I have 

 observed their appearance (in fresh, clean plumage) in such out- 

 lying districts as Shap Fell, Murton, or the skirts of the Bew 

 castle district, single individuals being the first to penetrate into 

 these regions. In the fall of the year they are highly gregari- 

 ous, travelling by day, and often roosting together in consider- 

 able numbers. For example, on the 10th of September 1890, 

 a friend and I watched a flight of this Motadlla come in to roost 

 near Floriston. Shortly before dusk they came up from the 

 north ; attracted, no doubt, by the neighbourhood of the Esk, 



