236 



Birds. 



THE GREY WATEE WAGTAIL. (Motacilla boarula.j 



THERE is not a brook purling along two flowery banks, 

 not a rivulet winding through the green meadow, which 

 is not frequented by this beautifully coloured and eles 

 gantly shaped little creature. We even see them in the 

 streets of country towns, following with quick pace the 

 half-drowned fly or moth, which the road-side streamlet 

 carries away. Next to the robin redbreast and the 

 sparrow, they are the boldest in approaching our habita- 

 tions. The Wagtails are much in motion ; seldom perch, 

 and perpetually flirt their long and slender tails, (whence 

 they derive their name,) principally after picking up 

 some food from the ground, as if that tail were a kind of 

 lever, or counterpoise, used to balance the body on the 

 legs. They are observed to frequent, more commonly, 

 those streams where women come to wash their linen ; 

 probably not ignorant that the soap, the froth of which 

 floats upon the water, attracts those insects which are 

 most acceptable to them. 



