m one spot to another, enjoying alike the warmth of the sun and the

In autumn, again, in little family groups, the young, in their
tints resembling the females, are learning for themselves the art of fly-catching, and, till
f the coming winter, each day finds them busily employed amongst the cattle in our

icinity of water as some other species, this

Though not so constantly seen 1n the vi
ers and streams, and the marshy grounds adjacent, as well as open downs

heep-walks.”—Birds of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 156.

ad over the central counties of England, there are
h clearly shows that certain physical

every movement as they run or flit fro

myriads of insects which it calls into being.

more sombre
instinct warns them o
fields and pastures.

Wagtail frequents the margins of riv
and furzy commons, with arable land and s

To this I may add that, although very generally spre
er found—a circumstance whic

xistence ; but to say what those conditions are is beyond my power, as much as it
+s not found in Cornwall or to the northward of Durham, or why the Pied
and Sussex to breed in those of Westmoreland and York-
engaged in the pursuit of flies and other

districts in this country in which it 1s nev
conditions are necessary to its e
is for me to say why the Nightingale
Flycatcher passes by the great oak-woods of Kent

shire. Like the Pied Wagtail the Budytes Rayi is always actively
insects ; like that species, too, it affects the immediate precincts of cattle, but sometimes suddenly pitches

on our lawns and gardens. It is certainly much less aquatic in its habits than either the Grey Wagtail
(Calobates sulphurea) or the typical Motacille (M. Yarrellii and M. alba). In structure it approaches the
true Pipits (Andi), and also resorts to the same kind of situations for which those birds evince a preference.
It breeds on the ground, among the growing corn, in fields of peas, in a grass-field, on a naked fallow, or by
the ditch-side. ‘‘ The nest,” says Mr. Hewitson, ‘is composed of dry grasses,
is lined with finer grasses and roots, and a few hairs. Mr. Newton tells me that it varies very much in the
materials of which it is composed: ‘One of two nests taken on the same day, and within a few yards of
each other, was composed of green moss and grass, lined with rabbit’s down, the other entirely of grass, lined
with fine roots.’ The eggs are usually four or five in number, occasionally six ; they are generally somewhat
less than those of the Grey Wagtail, which they sometimes resemble, but they are mostly more like those
of the Grey-headed Wagtail ; and it would be very difficult to identify them if once mixed with the eggs of
the Sedge-Warbler, which they closely resemble in colour, as well as in being usually marked with a black

roots, bits of moss or wool, and

waved line across the larger end.”
The sexes differ materially in colour, the face, throat, and under surface of the female being merely washed

with a lighter colour than that which is so conspicuous in the male. The young are spotted and speckled
on the wings and a portion of the upper surface, in which state they resemble young Pipits.
The Plate represents a male and a female, of the size of life.