YELLOW-BREASTED BIRDS. 113 



the lowlands generally in spring and autumn, and 

 even then is never far from water. Here it may 

 often be seen standing in a shallow, picking its insect- 

 food from the surface of the water as it plays over 

 the pebbly bottom. The long, smooth curves of head 

 and body, the fine sweep of tail, and the vivid con- 

 trast of its colours make it at once the most elegant 

 and brilliant of a singularly elegant and conspicuously 

 marked group ; while its motions' at the water-side, 

 on the grassy lawn, or on the open ways, the gliding 

 run, the stately sweep now to one side, now to 

 another, as it collects some trifle of food, and the 

 vertical rocking of its long tail when for a moment 

 the bird stands to rest, have no parallel for graceful 

 dignity among the whole body of British birds. For 

 the rest, it is a Wagtail of the Wagtails, with similar 

 double-noted call, undulating flight, and small prat- 

 tling song, inaudible unless the listener be close to 

 the singer. It nests on the ground or on some ledge 

 of rock, sheltered by overhanging herbage or project- 

 ing slab. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL — 6i inches. Although yellow- 

 breasted, lacks the black throat and the yellow upper 

 tail-coverts ; has upper parts olive instead of blue-gray ; 

 tail about an inch shorter. 



PIED WAGTAIL, WHITE WAGTAIL.— Plumage black, 

 white, and gray ; no yellow. 



YELLOW WAGTAIL.— Form, like the Gray Wag- 

 tail (plate 61). Length, 6i inches. Head and back 

 olive ; wings and central tail-feathers blackish, the 

 outer tail-feathers white ; stripe -over the eye and 

 the under parts bright yellow. Summer migrant. 



