The Grey Wagtail. 331 



The chin and throat are black, forming a sort of crescent, or 

 gorget. The breast, sides, belly, and vent, are bright yellow. 

 The legs and feet are a sort of brownish yellow or dirty flesh 

 colour, and in some specimens black. 



Habits and Breeding. — The Grey Wagtail is termed, in the 

 South of England, the Winter Wagtail, owing to its habit of 

 migrating to that part of England and remaining there during 

 the winter ; it leaves in the spring, and goes northwards, return- 

 ing again in the autumn or early winter. The Grey Wagtail is, 

 therefore, indigenous to Great Britain, and is the only variety of 

 this species that does not migrate to a foreign country. It is, 

 however, an inhabitant of most of the countries of Europe. It 

 is not so sociable as the commoner kinds, and repairs chiefly to 

 mountainous and wooded parts, in cultivated districts, where 

 shallow brooks abound. It does not seek the association of man 

 so readily, and is less confiding and valorous, than the species 

 previously mentioned. 



The birds breed twice a year, and their nests are to be found 

 by the side of a stream, rivulet, brook, or mill-dam, in a stone 

 dyke beneath a pile of wood or stones, or on the ground near 

 the water's edge. The nests are composed of grass or hay, dried 

 roots, and moss, and are lined with hair, mostly that of the cow. 

 If the weather be favourable, the birds commence to build early 

 in the year, as soon as the day dawns about 6 a.m. The hen 

 lays from four to seven (generally five or six) dirty white 

 eggs, mottled with yellowish spots. The parents are very 

 fond of their young, and most assiduous in their attentions 

 to them. 



Methods of Capture. — The Grey Wagtail may be taken in 

 the same manner as recommended for the Pied variety ; some 

 fowlers place large, flat-headed stones in the shallow parts of 

 streams, with their tops out of the water, and on these they 

 place limed twigs, and bait with mealworms ; others raise a 

 mound of earth close to the water's edge, and bait similarly. 

 Both methods are more or less successful. 



Food AND Treatment. — In a wild state, these birds feed 

 principally on aquatic insects, flies of all sorts, ants and their 

 eggs, spiders, and grubs. 



In confinement, they may be fed on white bread and milk, 

 mixed with ants' eggs, mealworms, wasp grub, and the Com- 

 pounds No. 1 and No. 2 {vide pp. 189, 190), mixed; they will 



