Wanton Wagtails. 



i i 



We 'forgive the blackbird much because of his sweet 

 song ; and truly he needs much forgiveness. He is 

 not only greedy and selfish, but more pugnacious and 

 revengeful than might be imagined. I have seen him 

 ruthlessly hunt the poor thrushes if they ventured on 

 what he deemed his feeding-ground, even thus early in 

 the morning, when there seemed plenty of worms and 

 grubs and snails for all of them. When angry or 

 disturbed his note is very sharp and discordant, and 

 far from mellow, as his song is. 



Then the tits particularly the blue tits begin to 

 flash like light from tree to tree, with their tweenk, 

 tweenk, tweenk ; 

 one of the pretti- 

 est but most pug- 

 nacious of birds ; 

 and if you are 

 near water, the 

 wanton wagtails 

 are never long 

 out of it, with 

 their pert and 

 sidelong glance 

 and darty walk ; 

 and they shake and preen and trim themselves, as 

 it were, into harmony with their surroundings, like 

 fashionable ladies at a tea-party. The wrens and 

 robins now turn out in full force in their fine clothing, 

 with a superfine sauciness and audacity, as if they 

 knew that they were still taken for 



" God Almighty's cock and hen ;" 



and on that account no one would dare to injure them. 

 The sparrows, if you should chance not to be far 



H 



EU WAGTAIL 



