THROUGH THE YEAR 3 



the sharp " chissick, chissick " and see the long, 

 bounding flight of one member or another of this 

 family of exquisites. I went to the water-edge next 

 morning to seek the yellow wagtails, but they may 

 have been travellers merely resting a day or two 

 at this tempting spot, for I saw them no more. 

 However, the note of another wagtail, the pied, fell 

 on my ear at once ; and, indeed, on such a morning, 

 at such a spot, a wagtail must be at the marge of 

 the lake. 



Pied wagtail, yellow wagtail and grey, all like to 

 run along the ripple mark of the wavelets. It is 

 in the spume of the sea-tide, or of the river below 

 lasher and mill-race, that the wagtail finds its food. 

 I have seen the grey wagtail running and flitting 

 low along the edge of the Thames at Chelsea to 

 take food out of the dirty froth of the thick brown 

 tide ; and through the winter pied wagtails, joining 

 the rock pipits, run along the sands at the edge of 

 the sea intent on the food in the tremulous froth. 



Where the wavelets of the lake fine into ripples 

 not an inch high, the wagtail trips, scarcely wetting 

 a dainty foot ! It knows well which side of the 

 lake or river to visit for food always the side into 

 v/hich the wind is blowing. The wind sweeps the 

 insect life on the water on to the spume, and this 

 is washed to the ripple mark where the wagtails run. 



A GLORY OF BLACKBIRDS 



There is no doubt about the loudness of the 

 blackbird's full-throated song ; but I have doubted 



