THE COMMON WAGTAIL 235 



Autumn, when they frequent cabbage grounds to hunt for caterpillars, 

 plenty may be caught by planting here and there sticks with limed twigs 

 fastened to them, baited with meal-worms. At this season they sometimes 

 go to the water trap, but this is not usual. If it happens that any are 

 caught in nooses or spring traps baited with elderberries, hunger must have 

 been the cause, and they must have been entirely destitute of food. 



ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES. Its beauty, sprightliness, sociability, and song, 

 unite in rendering the blue-breast delightful. It runs very swiftly, raises 

 its tail with a jerk, and extends it like a fan, keeping it and the wings in 

 perpetual motion, uttering the cry of ''fide, fide" and " tac, taG." It is 

 unfortunate that it gradually loses the fine blue on the breast in successive 

 moultiugs, when confined to the house, and becomes at length of a whitish 

 grey. In a few days it will become tame enough to eat meal-worms from 

 the hand, and it will not be long before it comes for them when called by 

 the voice or whistle. Its song is very agreeable ; it sounds like two 

 voices at once ; one deep, resembling the gentle humming of a violin 

 string, the other the soft sound of a flute. 



When at liberty in the room it always seeks the sunshine, and sleeps on 

 its belly. Its notes very much resemble those of the common wagtail, 

 Sut much improved by a violin-like hum. 



THE COMMON WAGTAIL. 



Motacilla alba, LINNAEUS ; La Lavandiere, BUFFON ; Die weisse Bachstelze, 

 BECHSTEIN. 



THIS species, well known throughout the old world, is seven 

 inches in length, of which the tail measures three and a half. 

 The beak, five lines long, is black, and very pointed ; the iris 

 is dark ; the shanks, an inch in height, are slender, and black ; 

 the upper part of the head, as far as the nape, is black, but 

 the rest of the upper part of the body, the sides of the breast, 

 and lesser wing-coverts, are bluish ash grey; the forehead, 

 cheeks, and sides of the neck are white as snow ; the throat, 

 as far as the middle of the breast, is black. 



The female is without the white forehead and cheeks, the 



