222 
M0TACILL1M. 
bridge. They admitted of a near approach, and both with the 
naked eye and through a telescope, I saw that they were the true 
M. flova. They seemed to take the place of the grey wagtail 
(M. boarulo ) here, as during three days spent in the district, I did 
not, though looking particularly for them, see one of this species : 
— such however, may have been accidental. The pied wagtail 
(M. Yarrellii) is remarkably abundant about Toome. Having 
known the if. flava to be seen here in different years — perhaps 
forty have elapsed since Mr. Templeton observed it — I conclude 
that the bird is an annual visitant. I cannot but imagine that 
it will yet be found regularly at some other favourite localities 
in the island. 
The observations of ornithologists in various parts of the 
country, show that it is generally a rare species. To myself, it has 
occurred but once in a wild state, except about Toome, on the 
24th of June, 1832. In that instance, one was seen in a turf- 
bog on the confines of the county of Donegal, a few miles from the 
city of Londonderry. It has but once been met with by ¥m. 
Sinclaire, Esq., on the 28th of April, 1833, when a single 
individual appeared, and on that day only, in an oat-field at the 
Palis. One, shot at Pinglass, near Dublin, about the 20th of 
April, 1835, has come under my notice in the collection of T. W. 
Warren, Esq. A second specimen, which I have seen at Dublin, 
was stated to have been shot in the vicinity of the custom-house 
there, in 1837. The species is unknown to my correspondents as 
visiting the southern counties. 
On the 8th of April, 1841, an old male bird shot near Belfast, 
came into my possession. A good ornithologist is certain that two 
wagtails, seen at the shore of the bay, near that town, on the 8th 
of August, 1846, were of this species. About the 1st of May, 
1847, three were procured between Portadown and YernePs 
bridge, in the county of Armagh, by the Bev. G. Bobinson. 
In the month of July, I have remarked this wagtail at the 
lakes of Hawes-water and Windermere, in England. 
About forty miles east of Malta, on the 22nd of April, 1841, 
two of these birds flew on board H.M.S. Beacon — one of them 
