Birds by Land and Sea 



birds, it was evidently intended to refer only to the 

 funereal black and white of its outward dress. If 

 the pied wagtail were subject to even passing moods 

 of reposefulness, the epithet might have served to 

 obscure in the popular eye this tricksy spirit which 

 masquerades in mourning. But, as if to repel the 

 suggestion, it would appear to have taken to itself 

 the very genius of caprice. " Tizit ! tizit ! " it cries, 

 as it takes wing with an air of bustle and purpose, 

 flying tolerably high, and following a straight course, 

 as do most birds hampered with a more than ordinary 

 freight of tail. The laboured, undulating flight, 

 consisting of short spells of rapid beating of the 

 wings alternating with longer periods during which 

 the bird dips through a shallow curve with folded 

 wings, suggests a distant errand. But in a moment 

 it drops to earth, and, wagging its tail vigorously, at 

 once forsakes the spot where it alighted for another, 

 probably at right angles to its former course. Scarcely 

 has it stopped when it springs up at a passing insect, 

 and having captured it, breaks back as if jerked by 

 a string fastened at the root of its tail, the expanded 

 feathers of which, as well as those of the wings, give 

 to the confused movement the appearance of a 

 somersault. The running gait with which the bird 

 moves, now this way, now that, along the ground, 

 over the matted water weeds, or through the shallow 

 water itself, is instinct with daintiness and grace, so 

 that his brusquest movement seems but a light test 

 of the natural art of this little master of motion. 



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