BIEDS AND THE AKTS 123 



companionable and fearless. Where the hamlet lies along 

 " the never- failing brook," fresh from the heart of the 

 downs above, wells are unnecessary, and village crockery 

 is cleansed in the crystal stream at the door. The sight, 

 constantly associated, of the little cottage drudge stepping 

 and stooping, dish in hand, beside the purling brook, and 

 of the social wagtail tripping and dipping over the pebbles 

 close by her, led child Hodge in Wessex, generations ago, 

 to call the wagtail " Little Polly Wash dish." 



ARTHUR HARINGTON. 



February 14, 1903. 



NOTE. In Dorset he is still known as " Polly Wash 

 Dish." John Clare wrote a tender child poem on the 

 wagtail, who does " everything by halves and nothing 

 long," when he was in the asylum : 



" Little trotty wagtail, he waddled in the mud, 

 And left his little footmarks, trample where he would, 

 He waddled in the water-pudge, and waggle went his tail, 

 And chirrupt up his wings to dry upon the garden rail. 



" Little trotty wagtail, you nimble all about, 



And in the dimpling water-pudge you waddle in and out ; 

 Your home is nigh at hand, and in the warm pig-stye, 

 So, little Master Wagtail, I'll bid you a good-bye." 



KNOWLEDGE OF AND VISION INTO NATURE 



In your article " Nature Study and Modern Verse " in 

 last week's issue, you accuse Wordsworth of being " occa- 

 sionally quaintly mistaken on matters of common know- 

 ledge." Your instance is unfortunate, for it is the fact 

 that wrens sleep during the winter in the nest they were 

 brought up in. I know a verandah in Surrey where 

 as many as eight or nine might be seen creeping in at 

 dusk to the old nest. I extremely doubt whether any 

 mistakes of detail can be laid to Wordsworth's charge. 

 Such phrases as Tennyson's 



" With that he turn'd and look'd as keenly at her 

 As careful robins eye the delver's toil " 



