YELLOW WAGTAIL.
BRITH V FTJCHE8. I.WYD, OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH.
RAY'S WAGTAIL.
Molacilla jlava, PENNANT. MONTAGU.
Budyies Bay/, PRINCE OF MLSIGNANO. MEYER.
Molacilla—A Wagtail. FU*a—Yellow.
THIS is a common species with, us in summer, but most so in the
southern and midland counties. It is not numerous cither in Ireland
or Scotland, but is known in the latter even as a bird of Caithness, also
some seasons rather plentifully in East Lothian. In the former it
has occurred at Belfast. In the Orkneys it has been observed
several times. One was shot near Kirkwall by Mr. lianken, in
the autumn of 1845; and another was seen near the same place on
the 25th. of September, 1847.
Water courses, water meadows, and such localities, are the choice
of the Yellow Wagtail, but it also, like the others of the genus to
which it belongs, frequents at times, and even more than they do,
very dissimilar places, such as open downs and pastures, ploughed
fields, and various other situations. On their first arrival I have
often noticed them in numbers in fields that had been Hooded, the
saturation of moisture, doubtless, bringing many insects within reach.
They have been observed perching on the stems of plants in quest
of these. They not unfrequently appear on the lawns in front of
houses. These birds also are fond of bathing themselves.
In Yorkshire they are less common in the East Biding than in
the other districts.
The Yellow Wagtail migrates hither hi summer, and leaves us
again in time to avoid the hyemal blasts, which those which stav
behind must feel. It arrives about the end of March, or the beginning
or middle of April, and leaves the north of the kingdom for