

S46 THE YELLOW WAGTAIL. 



breasts of the male birds render them very con- 

 spicuous as they glance about the dry bents of the 

 pasture. Autumn advancing, we lose these flights ; 

 but now and then a single bird will appear in one 

 of those occasional bright sunny days that even 

 winter will produce, looking like some deserted 

 straggler who has lost its passage, or from some 

 other cause remaining with us, chasing the gnat on 

 the margin of the sheltered pool, and then, when 

 the sunny ray passes away, he departs with it, is 

 hidden we know not where, supported by means 

 we are not acquainted with, till another partial gleam 

 allures him from retirement. In April, the flights 

 once more appear with all the fine feather and fresh- 

 ness of autumnal birds, running about the furrows in 

 arable fields, and catching the insects disturbed by 

 the plough in its progress. Soon building their 

 nest, and attending their families, they become 

 bleached by the sun and rain of the season, and 

 remain shabby for weeks. Though they may 

 follow the course of the swallow and other migrating 

 birds, yet their peculiar manner of flight seems to 

 preclude long continued exertion ; not sailing and 

 poising in air like the hirundines and others, but 

 proceeding by jerks, by risings and sinkings, which 

 at every pause require muscular action to set them 

 in progress anew, which for any length of time 

 could hardly be continued. It is probable that 

 their migrations are not very remote. The mode 



