THE WAGTAILS. 21 



THE WAGTAILS. 



is another very distinct group of birds; although closely 

 allied to the Larks on one hand, and the Chats on the other, 

 they have but little resemblance to either in their appearance or habits. 

 Slender in form, with long tails, and legs of more than ordinary 

 length, and very graceful in their movements, with a good deal of 

 white and delicate grey in their plumage, the yellows and greens of 

 which are not very glaring or decided, they may truly be called 

 elegant birds, although the name, Dishwashers, by which they are 

 commonly known to country people, is by no means an elegant 

 term. Their habit of frequenting watery places, such as marshes 

 and moist meadows, where there is a good growth of aquatic plants, 

 amid which beetles and other insects, on which they feed, abound, 

 has given rise to this name. The up and down motion of the birds, 

 like that of people in the act of washing, as they stand by the 

 margin of the ditch, pool, or stream searching for insects, may 

 probably have had something to do with the application of this 

 name, just as the habit of jerking their tails up and down, and 

 sometimes from side to side, had with their being commonly called 

 Wagtails, and sometimes Quaketails. 



Of these birds there are five species known as British, all of which 

 our artist has depicted; they all remain with us throughout the year 



