5 6 4 m o t a c il l i il e .
P A S SE RES. MOT A C1LL1DJE.
M o t a c il l a e a i i (Bonaparte*).
THE YELLOW WAGTAIL.
Motacilla Rayi.
T h e common Y ellow Wagtail of the British Islands is a
regular summer-visitor to this country, making its appearance
about the end of March, or the beginning of April, and
learing our southern shores in September almost to a bird.
In the lest of its habits it is very like our other common
W agtails, but it is more given to perching on trees or hushes,
and seldom or never resorts to the haunts of men or the close
proximity of houses and gardens to seek a breeding-place as
does the Pied Wagtail, nor is it so constantly an ahider by
the water-side as the Grey Wagtail. I t often frequents
aiable land, and inhabits fields of beans, pease and tares, in
all of which its nest has been found; it also frequents,
especially on its first arrival in this country, downs and sheep-
Budytes rayi, Bonaparte, Comp. List. B. Eur. and N. Am. p. 18 (1838).
pastures, fields of sprouting corn, and even dry fallows,
where, perched on a clod of earth or a stone, it may be seen
flirting and fanning its tail, and exhibiting its bright yellow
breast to the greatest advantage. Its appearance at the time
of sowing spring-corn always attracts the notice of countrymen,
and has gained it in many districts the name of Barley-
bird or Oatseed-bird. Later in the season it betakes itself
rather to the neighbourhood of water, or at least to pastures
and grass-lands, which may be regarded as its proper haunts
at this period of its life, and here it is as often found on
the richest as on the poorest soils*. The nest is placed on
the ground, usually sheltered and more or less concealed
by herbage, and varies somewhat in structure, being sometimes
formed of dried bents and fibrous roots, lined with
hair, while Mr. Hewitson mentions that of two nests found
on the same day and within a few yards of each other, one
was composed of green moss and grass, lined with rabbits’
down, but the other entirely of grass and lined with fine
roots. The eggs are from four to six in number, and are not
to be distinguished from those of the Blue-headed Wagtail
by size or colour. A second nest is frequently if not generally
built as summer advances.
The young of the first brood are able to fly about the end
of May, and betake themselves to the neighbouring pastures.
When afterwards joined by their later-hatched brethren all
may be seen up to the period of their autumnal departure
accompanying their parents in search of food. They are
especially fond of attending cattle and sheep while grazing,
* On the left bank of the Little Onze, below Thetford, several pairs of this
bird used to choose for their breeding-quarters some heathery mounds bordering
a stretch of wet meadows, and there associated so as to form, as it were, a little
colony, three, four or more nests might be found within the compass of a few
yards. This was no doubt originally owing to the spot affording greater security
from floods than any other near, and to it would seem to have resorted the whole
population of Yellow Wagtails frequenting a considerable extent of the valley of
the river. The mounds are of Mown, sand, based on a terrace of gravel, which
latter, having been largely excavated within the last ten years, has produced
many flint-implements of a very ancient type. I t is perhaps not too much to
suppose that the colony may have first established itself in days not long after
the Palaeolithic period.