and pleasing, if not so carelessly happy as that of the 

 Chaffinch. 



A queer black and white bird about seven and a half 

 inches long, with, seemingly much more than half the 

 whole length in the tail, is the Wagtail. No bird 

 could be more appropriately named, as the tail wags 

 constantly and seems as if it would wag itself off. Up 

 at the English Lakes I saw another Wagtail which 

 was gray and white, and indeed I quite often met 

 them later, and always near water. Swallows were 

 common in a great many places, the one most often 

 seen being like our Barn Swallow, but having a blacl^ 

 breast. At Clovelly with many other birds seen be- 

 fore I found a tiny Blue-gray Titmouse; "Bleuthy" 

 the country people call it, and a fascinating little per- 

 son it is. All through England I found the Robin so 

 different from ours, much smaller and with a breast 

 more ruddy but not red. 



When I was in Touraine, in France, I was very 

 anxious to see what birds would be there and those 

 that I found were Thrushes, Yellow-billed Black- 

 birds, the Great Titmouse, the Blue Titmouse, Swifts 

 and Swallows; — just the same birds that had been 

 common in England. Again in Switzerland, high up 

 above the Lauterbrunnen valley, I thought I should 

 surely have new birds; and there it was the Yellow- 

 bill and the Great Titmouse that lived in the hotel 

 garden below my windows, coming every day to pick 

 up crumbs dropped by people around the garden 

 tables. One day a familiar note in the tree close to 

 my windows made me look out, and the "ti-ti-ti" had 

 come from just such a little bird as our Golden- 

 crowned Kinglet, which there is called the "Gold- 

 crest" or Golden-crested Wren. 



12 



