112 



THE NATURE BOOK 



variably lined thickly with feathers — a 

 cosv nursery for the second smallest of 

 British birds. The numerous family keep 

 together with their parents until the fol- 

 lowing spring, roving about meanwhile 

 far from their early home. A very pretty 

 sight it is to watch their undulating 

 tandem flights from tree to tree, utter- 



migrant ; and the rarer and more local, 

 longer-tailed, more variously coloured and 

 most elegantly formed Grey Wagtail. A 

 distinguishing feature of this graceful 

 family is that when on the ground they 

 walk sedately, instead of hopping as the 

 generality of small birds ; they run nimbly 

 and stop as suddenly, when the specific 



MARSH TIT AND NESTING SITE. 



ing meanwhile their sweet soft call- 

 notes, " zit-zit." It has been suggested 

 that their curiously elongated tail is of 

 use as a balancing pole whilst searching 

 wind-tossed tree-tops for insect food, but 

 it must be much in the way during the 

 fortnight of incubation, in which both 

 sexes take part. 



Length of tail is likewise a distinguish- 

 ing feature of the Wagtail family, of 

 which we have three forms that must be 

 mentioned as of more or less frequent 

 occurrence : the ]iartly resident and 

 widely distributed Pied or Common Wag- 

 tail ; the Yellow, which is a summer 



tail-wagging, or rather see-sawing, is 

 complacently indulged in. In summer 

 some few White Wagtails visit us, and 

 may easily be mistaken for our common 

 form ; the chief distinguishing marks 

 arc that the back and wings of the latter 

 are greyer, and there is more white on 

 head and neck. It has a well-defined 

 black hood, and the white on the cheeks 

 sharply separates the black on the head 

 from that on throat and breast. In* 

 winter the two species are not so clearly 

 differentiated, and the young in both 

 species have the cheeks and throat tinged 

 with yellow. 



