352 SUMMER. 



or breeding plumage, is yellow in various shades; 

 pale on the head, with a brighter streak over each 

 eye ; deeper on the back, with a slight tinge of 

 brownish green, and very bright on the under part. 

 The wing covers, and wing and tail feathers have their 

 prevailing colours dark brown ; but they are edged 

 with pale yellow, and the two outside feathers of the 

 tail are white. When the bird first arrives in this 

 country, it betakes itself to the fields where the hus- 

 bandmen are at labour, and is very active in clearing 

 the soil of grubs. Its appearance at a particular sea- 

 son, and the brightness of its colour as contrasted with 

 the newly turned up earth, naturally call attention to 

 it, and in some places it is called the " oat-seed" 

 bird. 



In all the wagtails the colours of the females are less 

 brilliant, during the breeding season, than those of the 

 males; but after the autumnal moult they more nearly 

 resemble each other. 



Such are the chief birds that give a summer cha- 

 racter to the cultivated lands, the woods, and the 

 banks of rivers in this country ; and though none but 

 those that are native, venture to the mountain tops, 

 yet there are little birds which sport and utter their 

 notes in bleak and elevated places, rear their broods 

 there, and depart for warmer situations, or other lands, 

 before the winds of late autumn and early winter begin 

 to beat upon the locality of their nurseries ; and it is 

 not a little remarkable that the summer visitants of 

 those open places should be almost entirely without 

 song, though their call notes be peculiar, and well 

 adapted to the places that they frequent. 



