oe : i ‘ch seldom if ever live more than three days after they
surprising, to the entire neglect of its own young, which se

are hatched, if the usurper be among the family. a
A nest, taken from a hole in a pollard willow near the lock at Maidenhead, in Berkshire, on the 24th of

e : and shr f the commot
April 1859, was cupshaped, somewhat dense, and formed of dried grasses, fine roots, and shreds o on

i 1 al aa ‘ , in number;

barkless bass matting, warmly lined with short cows’ hair and a little wool. The eggs were four 1 er;

e grey, minutely freckled all over with pur lish brown, buat especially at the
S ye Pe é

in the first week of April, and the first egg was

re roof of a boat-house at Formosa,
Cuckoo. This nest was rendered
1 it was decorated, and from there

their ground-colour light oliv
The construction of this nest was commenced

Another taken in May 1860, from a beam under t
ained four eggs of the Pied Wagtail, and one of a
arlet and blue wools, with whicl
ed of purple silk, apparently a fragment from

larger end.
laid about the 15th.
near Maidenhead, cont
singular in appearance by a quantity of sc
being among the materials of which it was composed a shr

 

a lady’s dress.
During the pairing-season the male performs a number of grotesque

the female with ruffled feathers and outspread wings and tail.:
Although the Pied Wagtail is an inhabitant of our island during the whole of the year, I have not failed

to notice that it is much more numerous in certain localities at one season than at another, and that, if it be
not strictly migratory, it certainly, like other birds, affects a change of situation. Any one who may visit the

banks of the Thames during the month of September will find both old and young congregated in thousands,
I have myself seen them there

and animated motions, and approaches

spreading over the margins of the river and roosting on the aits at night.

at that season in swarms like the Sand-Martin; and that some more or less extensive migration then takes

place I am certain, for a short time afterwards their numbers are greatly diminished. Where they go to, no
one can say ; all we know is that the greater number of them disappear, and that but few remain during
the winter. At the period alluded to, the old birds have thrown off the black colouring of the throat (the
characteristic of summer) and assumed the white one of winter; the early-spring broods have the throat
suffused with yellow, and their backs mottled black and grey ; and the later ones are less gaily attired, having
the upper surface brown, and the under one grey, with only a trace of the black pectoral band. The sexes
are very similar at all seasons, except that the colour of the female is less intense, ber back not so black as that
of the male, and in some instances grey, but never of so light a hue as in WW. alba.

The Plate represents a male and a female, of the natural size, in their full summer dress, and a young
bird in the first autumn of its existence, when the face and throat are usually suffused with yellow.