Zbe limatcr Magtail. 



By the Rev. C. D. Farrar. 



IN politics some men are Radical or Tory under 

 all stress of party weather ; so there are avi- 

 culturists who hold their own settled views and 

 glory in them, and are not troubled by any 

 chance words of criticism ; but for my part, I pride 

 myself upon an open mind, and try to follow the 

 philosophical, sane method of sifting out the wheat 

 from the chaff of men's advice. The result is 

 I wobble ; indeed, the result of all philosophical 

 methods would appear to be the same. When there- 

 fore I one day read a plaintive lament that little was 

 now written about our English birds, I wobbled— and 

 though so far I had kept nothing but foreigners, I 

 determined incontinent to begin the study of our 

 native species. 



In vain my family warned me. Foreign birds 

 were bad enough : what did I want with getting 

 common English ones, that you could see in the 

 garden any day ? It was no good ; I always was self- 

 willed. As my old nurse once said to me — "There, 

 Sir, you never would listen to reason ; it was only 

 your father's cane — the one, you mind, with the horn 

 handle, Sir — that made you change your mind." As 

 my father's cane was no longer handy, I went my own 

 sweet way. 



I determined to begin with something very 

 " ornary," as Bret Harte used to say. I selected the 

 Water Wagtail, and the pied variety. 



The Wagtail alwa3^s looks to me as well groomed, 

 cool, and collected as any London dandy. He is 

 almost the only bird I know that realh^ walks with 

 one leg before the other. I think Larks are the only 

 other birds I have ever noticed doing this. 



I began with a cock; but mindful of the fact that 



