THE PIED WAGTAIL. 
215 
ing, that have attained a considerable size. These trees were 
selected by a prodigious number of wagtails for the purpose of 
roosting, which they did for four or five nights consecutively. 
Their numbers were so great, and the noise they created so loud 
as to attract Mr. Shaw's attention, and that of almost all the in- 
habitants of Portlaw. They weighed down the branches to the 
surface of the water, and when nearly immersed would rise like 
a cloud and then alight again : after remaining a few nights they 
suddenly disappeared. They were the pied wagtail. The birds 
which were reared in the vicinity of the works did not join the 
mass, but kept aloof and retired to their usual roosting place. 
They appeared about the works in the morning as usual — indeed, 
the day I was there, I saw a few very busy f fly-catching ' on the 
edge of the cistern placed on the top of the building, which is 
six stories high." Dr. Parran, at my request, wrote for further 
information, and received the following from Dr. Martin, dated, 
Portlaw, Dec. the 3rd, 1843: — “I have made close inquiries re- 
lating to the movements of the wagtails, from several of our 
work-people, remarkable for their sharp observation of the habits 
of animals, and they all concur in stating the number assembled 
on the island, to have been enormous, about one or two thousand. 
Smaller numbers still meet every night and do so during the win- 
ter. The men also say that such meetings were never remarked 
here before last year, but one of them remembers observing a 
similar assemblage at Loughcrew, in the county of Meath." 
Sir W. Jar dine* and Mr. Macgillivray,f — who give very full 
and good descriptions of the habits of the species, — mention its 
collecting together in flocks, which take their departure even from 
“ the middle and southern parts of Scotland," though some re- 
main throughout the winter; and that again a migratory move- 
ment northwards is made very early in spring, when they spread 
themselves over the whole of the country, and the Outer Hebri- 
des. (Macg.) A few certainly may leave the north of Ireland, 
but throughout the winter they are numerous : after frost of some 
Brit. Birds, vol. ii. p. 194. 
f Vol. ii. p. 230. 
