362 , OBSERVATIONS 



times preening their feathers, and spreading their 

 wings to the sun, and then flying off all together, 

 but soon returning to their former situation. The 

 greatest part of these birds seemed to be young 

 ones. MARKWICK. 



WAGTAILS. While the cows are feeding in the 

 moist low pasture, broods of wagtails, white and 

 gray, run round them, close up to their noses, and 

 under their very bellies, availing themselves of the 

 flies that settle on their legs, and probably finding 

 worms and larva that are roused by the trampling 

 of their feet. Nature is such an economist, that the 

 most incongruous animals can avail themselves of 

 each other ! Interest makes strange friendships. 



WHITE. 



Birds continually avail themselves of particular and 

 unusual circumstances to procure their food : thus 

 wagtails keep playing about the noses and legs of 

 cattle as they feed, in quest of flies and other insects 

 which abound near those animals ; and great numbers 

 of them will follow close to the plough to devour the 

 worms, &c., that are turned up by that instrument. 

 The red-breast attends the gardener in digging his 

 borders ; and will, with great familiarity and tame- 

 ness, pick out the worms almost close to his spade, 

 as I have frequently seen. Starlings and magpies 

 very often sit on the backs of sheep and deer to pick 

 out their ticks. MARKWICK. 



WRYNECKS. These birds appear on the grass- 

 plots and walks ; they walk a little as well as hop, 

 and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest, I con- 

 clude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold 

 their bills in the grass, they draw out their prey with 



