Birds. 



6595 



A List of the Birds of Banffshire, accompanied with Anecdotes, 

 By Thomas Edward. 



(Continued from p. 5268.) 



Pied Wagtail (Motacilla Yarrellii). Wherever there is a stream 

 or a quarry you will meet, in summer, with a pair or two of these 

 active little insect-eaters. During winter, however, they are invariably 

 to be seen here and there on lawns and about mills and farm-steadings. 

 They remain with us all the year round. A pair built their nest a few 

 seasons since on a ledge of rock at a road-side close to our harbour, 

 and managed, in spite of the bustle of such a place, and though the 

 nest w r as open to the gaze of all as they passed, to rear a brood of 

 five young ones. They are in no way particular as to the choice of a 

 place to breed in. I have found their nests quite exposed like the 

 one referred to, and as often beneath stones and banks, and in holes 

 completely hidden from view. One of these latter cases occurred in 

 a sand bank. The hole was fully thirteen feet from the ground, and 

 the nest placed about sixteen inches from its mouth. But what added 

 more to the strangeness of the fact was that the whole bank was 

 occupied by sand martins. One which I kept, having winged it, 

 became quite tame, and was allowed to go about a garret amongst a 

 host of mates ; and no better or greater dainty could be given it than 

 a piece of raw flesh. I have seen it, though incapable of using its 

 wings, leap nearly two feet from the ground for a morsel of flesh, as 

 also after flies. 



The Gray Wagtail [M. boarula). This is our yellow wagtail, being 

 known here by no other name. Though generally distributed through- 

 out the county like the last, it is not nearly so abundant. Like the 

 last, too, I have found this species breeding in company with the sand 

 martin. In an old, but now disused, quarry near this town, on the 

 left bank of the Doveran, a pair nest almost every summer : this 

 they do amongst the stones. High above them, and amongst the 

 softer mould, the martins rear their young. These birds like their 

 pied brethren draw towards the towns in winter, and in frosty weather 

 may be seen at our very doors. 



Ray's Wagtail (M~. campestris). This is, so far as I know, only an 

 occasional visitor with us. It may breed, however, but I am not aware 

 of it. I have found them breeding plentifully amongst the hillocks 

 which stretch along the line of coast between the Don (Aberdeenshire) 

 and Newborough ; then again from Peterhead to Fraserborough. 



