84 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
the full-grown young are out and about upon the 
water-sides before many other birds have much 
more than begun to build. The nest is generally 
built close to water, in a hole in a rock, or wall, 
or bank, or heap of stones ; it is rather flat and 
shallow in form, like the Pied Wagtail's, and is 
mainly made of moss and roots, with a warm lining 
of hair and wool. The eggs are a trifle smaller, as 
a rule, than those of the Pied Wagtail, and are quite 
distinct from them in appearance. They are a pale 
straw-yellow, or light clay tint, in ground colour, 
sometimes washed or mottled with a similar but 
darker yellowish shade, and fairly thickly marked 
with spots and speckles of darker yellowish-brown. 
They are rather like an unusually pale variety of 
the Whitethroat's. Five is the usual number. 
YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
{Motacilla rail.) 
Ray's Wagtail, Cowbird. — Unlike the Pied and 
Grey Wagtails, this is only a summer visitor to 
our country, arriving about the middle of April. 
It chiefly haunts moist meadows and pastures, 
where its food of insects is plentiful, and for the 
same reason it is often seen in close attendance on 
cows (hence one of its local names), since many 
insects are both attracted to cows as they feed and 
