THE GREY WAGTAIL. 237 



Mode of Taking. — If there is snow on the ground on their return in 

 March, it is only necessary to clear a place (below the window will do), 

 and scatter meal-worms amongst limed twigs, or place these on stones or 

 wood where the birds assemble, or even fasten a meal-worm to a limed 

 twig, loosely stuck in the earth, and you may soon catch a wagtail. 



Attractive Qualities. — Its handsome plumage, its sprightliness, its 

 quick and elegant motions, please one as much as its pretty song, which, 

 without being striking, is varied, and continues the whole year, except 

 during moulting. I always keep a wagtail amongst my birds, and when 

 the black-cap, the blue-breast, the lark, and the linnet sing, it seems to 

 form a counter-tenor. 



THE GREY WAGTAIL. 



Motacilla Boarula, Linn^us ; La Bergeronette, Buffon ; Die graue Bachstelze, 

 Bechstein. 



This beautiful species, like the preceding, is seven inches 

 in length, of which the tail alone measures four. The beak 

 is black ; the iris brown ; the legs, nine lines high, dark flesh- 

 coloured ; the upper part of the body, including the lesser 

 wing-coverts, dark ash-grey ; the head slightly tinted with olive, 

 and the rump a fine yellow green ; there is a white streak 

 above the eyes, and another, beginning at the inferior base of 

 the beak, descends the sides of the neck, whilst a black streak 

 extends from the superior base as far as the eyes ; the chin 

 and throat are black, but the breast and under part of the 

 body are of the finest yellow. 



The throat of the female is not black, but pale orange ; her 

 colours are generally less bright. 



Males a year or two old are without the fine black throat ; 

 it is clouded with white. 



Habitation. — In their wild state, these wagtails are found throughout 

 Europe ; but in the greatest number in mountainous and wooded parts, 

 where the brooks flow over beds of pebbles. They are birds of passage, 

 and return amongst us the end of February or beginning of March. A 

 few have been observed to remain during mild winters, when they take up 

 their abode near dunghills or warm springs. 



In the house they should be kept in a nightingale's cage, and treated 

 like one ; they are so delicate, that with the greatest care they can rarely 

 be preserved two years. 



Food When wild they prefer aquatic insects, and are continually 



chasing them among the plants and stones by the water-side. 



