356 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



The Pied Wagtail is generally known, not only 

 for its sharply-contrasted black and white plumage, 

 but also for the singular grace and daintiness of 

 its movements. It is essentially a bird of open 

 spaces, shunning the remoter woodlands, and is 

 constantly seen about the farmsteads, where it 

 droops down from the roof of the barn, its sweet call- 

 note, " chiz-zic, chiz-zic," chiming with the rise and 

 fall in its flight, to alight upon the cobble-stones, 

 when, with nodding head and swaying tail, it runs 

 cheerily hither and thither, snapping up minute flies 

 almost at one's feet. Sometimes it will spring into 

 the air and overtake its prev on the wing, and 

 wherever water is to be found, the Pied Wagtail 

 is at home. At the pond-side, or by the little 

 stream which crosses the lane below the village, 

 the slender, graceful form appears, tripping daintily 

 on the edge, or wading in the shallower reaches in 

 pursuit of the smaller aquatic insects. 



Yarrell states that the Pied Wagtail seldom 

 perches on a tree, but this opinion can hardly 

 be borne out. Although it may rarely be seen 

 amidst the denser foliage, a dead bough on oak or 

 ash is a constant resting-place, and in autumn, 

 when numbers gather together, they may be found 

 roosting night by night in the taller willows. I 

 remember a small island overgrown with ash-trees in 

 the centre of a pond which was a regular resort for 

 the Wagtails, and hither in the late afternoon, they 

 would come flying in from all directions to sleep 

 amidst the upper branches. 



The Wagtails, with the exception of the IMeadow 

 Pipits, are the smallest birds that walk, and the 



