420 The Natural History of Selborne 



Birds continually avail themselves of particular and unusual 

 circumstances to procure their food ; thus wagtails keep playing 

 about the noses and legs of cattle as they feed, in quest of flies and 

 other insects which abound near those animals ; and great numbers 

 of them will follow close to the plough to devour the worms, &c., 

 that are turned up by that instrument. The redbreast attends the 

 gardener when digging his borders ; and will, with great familiarity 

 and tameness, pick out the worms, almost close to his spade, as I 

 have frequently seen. Starlings and magpies very often sit on the 

 backs of sheep and deer to pick out their ticks. MARKWICK. 



WRYNECK. 



THESE birds appear on the grass-plots and walks ; they walk a little 

 as well as hop, and thrust their bills into the turf, in quest, I con- 

 clude, of ants, which are their food. While they hold their bills in 

 the grass they draw out their prey with their tongues, which are so 

 long as to be coiled round their heads. WHITE. 



GROSBEAK. 



MR. B. shot a cock grosbeak which he had observed to haunt his 

 garden for more than a fortnight. I began to accuse this bird of 

 making sad havoc among the buds of the cherries, gooseberries, and 

 wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon opening its crop 

 or craw no buds were to be seen, but a mass of kernels of the stones 

 of fruits. Mr. B. observed that this bird frequented the spot where 

 plum-trees grow, and that he had seen it with somewhat hard- in its 

 mouth, which it broke with difficulty ; these were the stones of 

 damsons. The Latin ornithologists call this bird Coccothraustes i.e., 

 berry-breaker, because with its large horny beak it cracks and 

 breaks the shells of stone-fruits for the sake of the seed or kernel. 

 Birds of this sort are rarely seen in England, and only in winter. 

 WHITE. 



