Houses ^ Gardens 9 



assumption of the more definite black, white, and grey 

 plumage of the summer months, as these fairy-like 

 birds trip nimbly along the gravelled terrace, or over 

 the lawns in pursuit of insects. A quick run for three 

 or four yards, and as quick a halt, with the wagging of 

 the long slender tail. Then the graceful undulating 

 flight, as the bird wends his way to settle on the stone 

 balustrade or the gable of the house. 



" Polly Dishwasher " is one of the names bestowed 

 upon him by some of our peasants. For some suc- 

 cessive years a pair of these cheery little birds built in 

 a hollow formed within a centre-piece of a garden 

 fountain in the shape of three stucco dolphins, which 

 stood on their heads with their tails intertwined, sup- 

 porting a giant shell, in which sat a cupid holding a 

 water-jet. This group was erected upon a pedestal of 

 stone in the centre of the fountain, and that in its turn 

 was in the middle of a Dutch garden before the south 

 front of the house. The entrance to the wagtail's 

 nest was by no means spacious, just where the dol- 

 phins' heads were separated from one another at the 

 base of the group ; but for all that, a wily cuckoo 

 deposited her egg for three or four years in succession, 

 I should say by means of her bill, in the nest. 



One summer the young cuckoo was extracted and 

 placed in a large wicker cage whose bars were separ- 

 ated somewhat broadly, through which we used to 

 watch the foster-parents passing in order to feed their 

 clamorous charge. 



How individual species of a genus differ in their 

 habits ! If only the lovely and still more gracefully- 



