THE PIED WAGTAIL. 305 



on the plate at page 282, on a scale of one-third the lineal 

 dimensions. The female has the throat and breast white, 

 and the plumage on the back more inclining to grey, which 

 are also the colours of the males in the winter, at which 

 time the sexes are not easily distinguished. 



The pied wagtail is a very generally dispersed bird ; and 

 there are few pools and streams in any part of the British 

 Islands near which it may not be seen in the summer, though 

 it prefers those that are near trees, fertile grounds, or any 

 other accompaniments that bring numbers of insects upon 

 the water. Hence it is not so much found by the cold, 

 dingy, and peat-encircled pools on the naked heights ; and 

 lower down, a favourite brook for the wagtail is always a 

 successful one for the young trout-fisher. 



In summer, the wagtails hawk over the surface of the 

 water, and catch winged insects, not by straightforward 

 speed, like the swallow tribe, but by short and jerking 

 nights, after the manner of the fly-catchers. When the 

 water subsides during the droughts of summer, they may be 

 seen scouring the margins and picking up the larvae that are 

 still alive in the mud and sludge which remain wet. At 

 other times, they may be seen wading in the shallows, and 

 picking up the Iarva3 and aquatic insects that are between 

 the pebbles, their motions while doing so being so rapid, 

 that only the flitting of the tail is noticed. They also follow 

 the plough, and pick up larvae and worms that are exposed 

 on the turned furrows ; and they come about barns, and 

 examine horse-ponds, and generally all places where water 

 stagnates or the earth is turned up. Inhabiting, as they 

 may be said to do, the border between the land and the 

 water, they conduct themselves as borderers generally do 

 they levy their contributions upon the one or the other, as 

 may be most conducive to their own interests ; but they do 

 it with this difference, that all their inroads and forages are 



VOL. i. x 



