154 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



tail or two may be found, even in the hardest weather, 

 attending the sheep which are at that season penned 

 upon turnip-lands. In the summer months it would 

 be difficult to say where the Pied Wagtails may not 

 be met with in this county : our meadows, lawns, 

 grass-plots, and road-sides are alive with them, but 

 they avoid woods, and generally prefer somewhat 

 moist grounds and the neighbourhood of waters ; 

 they may be seen, however, in almost any field in 

 which horses, cattle, or sheep are pastured, dodging 

 about amongst the legs of these animals in pursuit 

 of insects. The nest of this species is often chosen 

 by the Cuckoo, whose egg generally resembles those 

 of the Pied Wagtail perhaps more than those of any 

 other of our common insectivorous birds. At Lilford 

 we almost every year have one of these intruders 

 reared by a pair of Wagtails in the flower-garden, 

 and it is amusing, though somewhat pitiful, to watch 

 the trouble and anxiety of the deluded foster-parents 

 to feed and protect their ungainly and ravenous ward 

 after it has left the nest. In one case the Wagtail's 

 nest was built in ivy on the garden-wall within a few 

 feet of several trained Falcons on their blocks, and 

 the young Cuckoo, on its first sally from the nest, in 

 trying to reach a stone balustrade fell within a few 

 inches of one of the former birds, which, fortunately, 

 was at that moment hooded ; the distress of the old 

 Wagtails was really painful to see, though they them- 

 selves would constantly run amongst the Falcons, 

 whether hooded or not ; they evidently were in the 

 greatest terror for the safety of their treasure, which 

 sat chirping and gaping for food, whilst the Wagtails 

 fluttered over it, settled close to it, darted at the 

 Falcon, and almost screamed in their agony of anxiety. 

 I caught the Cuckoo and placed it on the balustrade, 



