THE WAG-TAIL 89 



rivulet. The nest, placed on the ground, is very much like 

 that of the dish-washer, as far as choice of materials and 

 texture is concerned, only it is interwoven more care- 

 fully. The female lays six or seven eggs; they are of a 

 whitish hue with yellowish spots. W hen the young ones 

 are fledged, towards mowing-time, the father and mother 

 take them to some new- mown fields where the cattle 

 are taken to pasture. 



Then begins an idyllic life for the wag-tail. The big, 

 russet-coloured oxen are lying about on the short grass 

 of the pasture-commons; around them, swarms of flies 

 are buzzing, and to the right and left bands of long-tailed 

 birds dart on the insects , without being in the least 

 frightened by the neighbourhood of the weighty rumi- 

 nants. Some of the wag-tails are daring enough to perch 

 on the black horns of the cows. Others follow the sheep 

 dispersed about the commons, following the lead of the 

 shepherd, who walks ahead, wrapped in his cloak. 



In the XVIII. century, when naturalists yet lent to the 

 animals they were studying the sentimental ideas that were 

 then the fashion, they pretended that wag-tails were so fond 

 of the shepherd as to warn him when a wolf or a sparrow- 

 hawk was drawing near. This story is as ingenious and 

 pretty as it is unlikely. Wag-tails care little about the wolf 

 of whom thev have nothing to fear; as to the hawk, they 

 are very much agitated when the^ see it soaring above 

 the pasture-commons, it is therefore only interest for their 



