112 THE PIED WAGTAIL 
it visits many of our English counties. Its nest has been found in 
such odd places as a Sand Martin’s burrow and the middle of a 
strawberry bed. The present editor has seen it nesting among the 
spraying branches of a Virginian creeper growing over trellis work. 
A beautiful little bird it is. 
THE PIED WAGTAIL 
MOTACILLA LUGUBRIS 
Summer—all the plumage variegated with white and black; back and scapulars, 
chin, throat, and neck black; a small portion of the side of the neck 
white. W#intey—back and scapulars ash-grey; chin and throat white, 
with a black, but not entirely isolated, gorget. Length seven inches and 
a half. Eggs bluish white, speckled with dark grey. 
Tue Pied Wagtail or Dishwasher is a familiar and favourite bird, 
best known by its habit of frequenting the banks of ponds and 
streams, where it runs, not hops about, picking insects from the 
herbage, and frequently rising with a short jerking flight, to capture 
some winged insect, which its quick eye has detected hovering in 
the air. Its simple song consists of but few notes, but the tone is 
sweet and pleasing, and is frequently heard when the bird is cleaving 
its way through the air with its peculiar flight, in which it describes 
a series of arcs, as if it were every instant on the point of alighting, 
but had altered its mind. While hunting for food, it keeps its tail 
in perpetual motion. It shows little fear of man, and frequently 
approaches his dwelling. It may often be noticed running rapidly 
along the tiles or thatch of a country house, and it not unfrequently 
takes its station on the point of a gable, or the ridge of the roof, and 
rehearses its song again and again. Very frequently, too, it perches 
in trees, especially such as are in the vicinity of ponds. Next to 
watery places, it delights in newly-ploughed fields, and hunts for 
insects on the ground, utterly fearless of the ploughman and his 
implements. A newly-mown garden lawn is another favourite 
resort ; so also is a meadow in which cows are feeding, and to these 
it is most serviceable, running in and out between their legs, and 
catching, in a short time, an incredible number of flies. The country 
scarcely furnishes a prettier sight than that afforded by a family of 
Wagtails on the short grass of a park, in July or August. A party 
of five or six imperfectly fledged birds may often be seen scattered 
over a small space of ground, running about with great activity, 
and picking up insects, while the parent birds perform short aérial 
journeys above and around them, frequently alighting, and trans- 
ferring from their own mouths to those of their offspring, each in its 
turn, the insects they have just captured. They are at all times 
sociably disposed, being seen sometimes in small parties, and 
sometimes in large flocks. It has been noticed that when one of a 
