YELLOW WAGTAIL. 
377 
impairing their bodily pow r er, would prevent their 
essaying a flight ever so short and feeble; in fact 
they would be compelled to exert themselves to the 
very utmost, and to sacrifice every feeling to this 
one object. 
The Yellow Wagtail (Motacillaflava of Ray and 
other English writers) offers an illustration of the 
same diversity of operations among individuals of 
one species. This summer Wagtail arrives here 
about the very time the Grey Wagtail leaves us, 
and it also quits us about the period the winter 
species comes. Still, stragglers are seen on to No¬ 
vember (according to some remarks I made in 1831) 
frequenting both the coast and inland stations, and 
in October, 1833 and other years, they have been 
noticed haunting the beaches near Plymouth, so 
that without contending for their stay through the 
w T hole winter, I have reason to infer that like the 
Grey sort, they are occasionally induced to act 
differently from the aggregate of their kind. Facts 
of the same nature as those I have recorded relative 
to these two birds, are also named by Mr. Markwich 
in Linnean Transactions. I. 126. The Yellow- 
Wagtails congregate in August and September, and 
abide for several days on our sheltered beaches, 
feeding among the sea weed, likewise affecting 
open fields. The number collected at these times 
is disproportioned to our summer stock, so that pro¬ 
bably this species approaches the southern parts of 
the kingdom previously to departure. Some no 
doubt have been seen here in winter, and Mr. Couch 
affirms they reside in Cornwall at that season alone. 
But, without presuming to contradict the authorities 
for these statements, I w r ould ask whether the newly 
discovered Motacilla neglecta may not have been 
sometimes mistaken for it ? 
The Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba of most 
English writers) appears to be a bird of more en- 
w w 
