642 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Great quantities Food Nests Eggs. 



young ones, and they are invariably found in the 

 greatest number when an easterly wind prevails: 

 they always come against the wind. A gentle- 

 man informed Mr. Markwick, that his father's 

 shepherd once caught eighty-four dozen of them 

 in a day. Great quantities of them are eaten 

 on the spot by the neighbouring inhabitants; 

 others are picked and sent up to the London 

 poulterers, and many are potted. 



Mr. Pennant supposes, that the vast quantities 

 of these birds which are found on the downs 

 about Eastbourne, are occasioned by a species qf 

 fly, their favourite food, that feeds on the wild 

 thyme, and abounds in the adjacent hills. A few 

 of these birds feed in the old rabbit-burrows 

 there. The nest is large, and made of dry grass, 

 rabbit's down, a few feathers, and horse-hair. 

 The eggs are from six to eight, and are of a ligb,t 

 colour. 



THE WAGTAIL. 



THIS is a slender-bodied bird, that weighs, 

 about six drachms, and is about seven inches 

 and a half from the tip of the bill to the end of 

 the tail, and about eleven from the point of each 

 wing, when extended. It has a slender, straight, 

 sharp bill, of a black or dusky colour, upwards 

 pf half an inch long: the circles of the eyes 

 brown, or hazel-coloured, with a large white spo$ 



