114 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



even more warmly than before. She may relent, 

 then, or she may not, but, at this point, another 

 male generally interferes, when all three fly away 

 together. There is a good deal of similarity between 

 the courtship of the wagtail and that of the pheasant, 

 for, having run up to the hen, the little bird, if not 

 too brusquely repulsed, will run about her in a 

 semicircle, drooping his wing upon that side, more 

 especially, which is turned towards her, so as to show 

 all that she can see — and this I have seen the pheasant 

 do, time after time, with the greatest deliberation. 



Having noticed this method in the wagtail, I 

 have looked for it in the wheat-ear, also — the two 

 may often be studied together — but I have not yet 

 seen him act in quite the same way. His chief 

 efforts, no doubt, are those aerial ones of which 

 I have spoken, but having exhausted these, or after 

 sitting for some time on the top twig of an elder, 

 singing quite a pretty little song, he will often 

 pursue the object of his adoration over the sunny 

 sand, with ruflled plumage, and head held down. 

 He is reduced to it, I suppose, but it seems quite 

 absurd that he should be. He ought to be irresis- 

 tible, dressed as he is, for what more can be wanted ? 

 Nothing can be purer, or more delicately picked 

 out, than his colouring — his back cream-grey, his 

 breast greyey-cream. Divided by the broad, black 

 band of the wings, these tintings would fain meet 

 upon the neck and chin, but, here, a lovely little 

 chestnut sea, which neither can o'erpass, still keeps 

 them apart. They cannot cross it, to mingle warmly 

 with each other and make, perhaps, a richer hue. 

 Fas obstat — but fate, in chestnut, is so soft and pretty 



