184 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



and white feathering. They always look so dis- 

 tinguished as if they are the high-born lords and 

 ladies of the bird world. The name wagtail was well 

 chosen, as the tail is for ever flitting up and down 

 while the pretty bird goes running, in its quick, 

 dainty way, over the lawn or over the ploughland 

 and it runs just as quickly and daintily over the 

 smooth, green, close-shaven lawn as about the furrows 

 and clods of the rough plough-field. 



No birds are more graceful in their movements. 

 Wagtails, on foot or on the wing, always are dancing. 



Where the wagtail seems to be most truly at home is 

 by the old pond in the farmyard, or beside the little 

 trout stream or by any kind of pond or stream. 

 It is fond of water because of the insect lif e found about 

 water. But wagtails love to come to our gardens to 

 make their nests. One friendly pair of our acquaint- 

 ance built in a flowerpot in a glass-house. When in 

 due time their young were hatched, they paraded 

 their youngsters on the garden lawn, as if they wished 

 to show us what lovely little things they were. 



Then we have often found the nest in the yards of 

 the farmers whose cattle the wagtails befriend 

 placed in the side of a stack of faggots or a straw or 

 manure-heap, or perhaps in some crevice of a bank of 

 rock. One nest we once knew about was in a cutting 

 on a railway-line, set in the bank, and in this nest a 

 cuckoo had placed one of her eggs for the wagtail to 

 hatch. The nest is of dry grasses and rootlets, lined 

 with feathers and hair ; the eggs are faintly bluish, 

 speckled over with greyish-brown marks. 



Country boys call the wagtails " dishwashers," and 

 often know them by this curious name alone. 



By rushing mountain streams, as by quieter waters, 

 you may see the grey wagtail really a beautiful 



