THE PIED WAGTAIL. 121 



for their eager voracity. Xor do the parent birds 

 themselves liiid a few sufficient for their supply, 

 for they devour tliem with insatiable earnestness ; 

 and as they jerk about in the air after the gnats, 

 or nm pecking over the ground, their lively shrill 

 notes of- "guit, guit, guit, guit," have a sound 

 which accords well with their active motions. 



The pied wagtail seems fond of the companion- 

 ship of man, often keeping near the labourer in 

 tlie liclds, and seeming far less fearful of him than 

 of the bird of prey. It will run by the cattle, 

 and look well into the broad furrows which the 

 passing ploughshare leaves in the field, making 

 successive leaps as it follows this; rising in the 

 air considerably at the beginning of each etfort, and 

 sinking again at the close ; swallowing a number 

 of insects, whicli the ploughman turns up in his 

 course, taking them more frequently from the 

 ground than during flight. Mr. Yanell quotes 

 a letter from Mr. Rayner, in which the Avriter 

 remarks, that in the smnmer and autumn of 1837, 

 he had several wagtails of the pied and yellow 

 species in his a\'iary, which were all very expert 

 in catching and feeding on the minnows which 

 were in a fountain in the centre. They hovered 



