266 HisTOKY or 



them two or three small bits at a time, which will make them soon 

 grow tame, when they will feed themselves. They should be 

 put, nest and all, into a little basket, which should be covered up 

 warm : and they should be fed every two hours. Their food 



banks, or in the hole of some wall whose base is washed by waters. Insects 

 and small worms are their only aliment. 



The White Wagtails ( M. Alba) have a mode of life peculiar to themselves, 

 and habits which distinguish them from budytes. I'hoy more readily ap- 

 proach man and his habitations, being fond of nestling in our neighbour- 

 hood. The others, more wild, inliabit the vicinity of the meadows and 

 isolated herbaceous tracts. The former prefer stagnant waters, and the lat- 

 ter delight more in the borders of springs and running streams. Both run 

 with the cattle, fly about the labourer, accompany him in his rural labours, 

 and follow the plough in piu-suit of small worms and larvae, of which tlie 

 newly turned furrows present a vast abundance. These insectivora, as 

 useful as the fly-catchers and swallows, sometimes in the flight, but mor<» 

 frequently on the ground, amidst the herbage, seize upon the flies and gnalt 

 which have escaped the murderous bills of their other pursuers in the air. 

 All the insect population of ponds and marshes constitute the nutriment of 

 these volatiles. Their slight forms, little head, delicate feet, and long tail, 

 perpetually balanced, cause them to be at once distinguished from all other 

 birds with slender bills. Tliey are therefore with great propriety formed 

 into a small distinct family. 



The Motacilla Alba is spread throiighout Europe. It is even seen in 

 Siberia, Kamschatka, Iceland, and the Feroe islands. It also inhabits 

 Africa and India. 



They form in autumn numerous flocks, which extend themselves through 

 the fields, and withdraw, on the approach of evening, into osieries and wil. 

 lows which border canals and rivers. There tliey perform a noisy concert 

 until night-fall. They depart in October, and often at this period they are 

 heard passing in the air, sometimes at a very considerable height, and cla- 

 mouring to each other incessantly. They do not, however, all migrate at 

 this season, for some, though a very lew, are occasionally to be met witiv 

 They then abound in Egypt, where the people, says Maillet, di-y them in 

 the sand, to preserve them for the purpose of food. They are also to be 

 seen in Senegal at the same season ; but, like the swallows and quails, they 

 disappear from thence in spring to return to our climates, where they ar. 

 rive at the end of March. 



These birds possess the most astonishing gaiety and lightness. They ap- 

 pear in flying to rest upon their long outsjiread tail, as upon a broad oai 

 which assists them to balance, spring, and perform a variety of evolutions 

 in the air. During such sports, they are frequently he;ird to utter a little 

 <Ty, lively, clear, and redoubled, which sounds like the syllables guit, gtiit, 

 guit, guit, guit. They have also a soft and delicate song, « liich, in autumn, 

 is reduced nearly to a murmur. The motion of their tail in flying is hori- 

 zontal, hut on the ground its position is perpendiculiir. As they delight iti 

 fieJng upon the edge of the wafer, and often approach the wa*herwonu>ii 

 that are there, and seem to imitate witli their tails the beating of the linen, 

 the French have given them the name of lavandieres. They run lightly. 



