BIRDS THAT BEFRIEND ANIMALS 135 



study in grey, black, and yellow, with a breast like a 

 bright canary's. This is a graceful and lively bird, 

 with a very long tail. As he goes dancing about in 

 the air, he utters a sweet, swallow-like song. 



A third member of the family is the yellow wagtail, 

 not a resident among us, but one of our bird-guests of 

 the summer. This handsome bird is greenish olive 

 above, rich yellow beneath, with a bright sulphur- 

 yellow streak above the eye. A bird of the rolling 

 downs and open pastures, the yellow wagtail is called 

 seed-fool, barley-bird, and seed-lady, coming as it 

 does in the days of seed-sowing. 



It is not surprising that there should be cases of 

 friendship between four-footed and feathered creatures, 

 when we think how much birds have in common with 

 beasts. 



The eagle in the bird-world is as the lion among 

 beasts ; cats are feathered owls ; ravens have much 

 in common with dogs, feeding on carrion ; the hawk 

 is a kind of fox in the air ; the nuthatch shares the 

 squirrel's love of nuts, and opens them as artfully ; 

 parrots and monkeys have a good deal in common. 

 An old writer claimed to find some external resemblance 

 between these two-footed and four-footed animals, 

 but their real resemblance lies in character and habits. 



Lovers of birds sometimes see instances of what 

 appears to be genuine good-nature shown by one to 

 another. A naturalist, visiting the Nile, was astounded 

 to find a plover quietly making his dinner from a fish 

 in the claws of a sea eagle, which took no notice of his 

 small guest, whom he might have destroyed by one 

 blow of his beak. 



The chief way in which birds befriend four-footed 

 also two-legged and featherless animals is by their 

 grand task of keeping down insect life. Most birds are 



