SPORT OF BUTE. 123 



them to chase their prey with great activity. 

 Emphatically a ground bird, the wagtail is not 

 confined to winged insects, but feeds much on 

 worms and the eggs of land and water flies. This 

 subsistence does not cease entirely in winter; 

 hence it does not migrate, or only partially so, 

 from colder to milder places in our own country. 



The rich fields of Bute team with skylarks. 

 These general favourites feed in summer on the 

 field insects and earthworms, in winter almost en- 

 tirely on the seeds of annual weeds scattered over 

 the corn stubbles. Totally independent of trees, 

 they are the free songsters of the air, and 

 from fields without a hedge, or upland slopes 

 without a bush, trill forth their melody so charm- 

 ing to our ear, while the figure of the little 

 syren, twittering in a flood of light, is wholly lost 

 to our ken. 



The larks introduce the buntines, the first of 

 the hard-billed birds. Some of them approach 

 the larks in their habits, by living much in culti- 

 vated fields, and refusing to perch on trees. They 

 all have bills formed for breaking the rinds of 

 seeds. They also eat insects moderately. I have 



