THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



united with them, they assemble in large parties 

 towards the evening preparatory to their nightly 

 roost, selecting low-spreading bushes hanging over 

 the pool, or as near the water as they can, and thus 

 become secured from capture by nocturnal vermin. 

 Being in full beauty at this time, the fine yellow 

 breasts of the male birds render them very conspi- 

 cuous as they glance about the dry bents of the 

 pasture. Autumn advancing, we lose these flights ; 

 but now and then a single bird will appear in one 

 of those occasional bright sunny days that even 

 winter will produce, looking like some deserted 

 straggler who has lost its passage, or from some 

 other cause remaining with us, chasing the gnat on 

 the margin of the sheltered pool, and then, when 

 the sunny ray passes away, he departs with it, is 

 hidden we know not where, supported by means we 

 are not acquainted with, till another partial gleam 

 allures him from retirement. In April, the flights 

 once more appear with all the fine feather and fresh- 

 ness of autumnal birds, running about the furrows 

 in arable fields, and catching the insects disturbed 

 by the plough in its progress. Soon building their 

 nest, and attending their families, they become 

 bleached by the sun and rain of the season, and 

 remain , shabby for weeks. Though they may 

 follow the course of the swallow and other migrating 

 birds, yet their peculiar manner of flight seems to 

 preclude long-continued exertion ; not sailing and 

 poising in air like the hirundines and others, but 

 proceeding by jerks, by risings and sinkings, which 



