8498 Notices of New Books. 



indeed I heartily wish that at least a tenth of the names which now 

 uselessly encumber our list were struck out and entirely forgotten. 



Another excellent feature of the new work is the unmistakeable 

 evidence that the (author is in very many instances familiar with the 

 living bird : this I believe was rarely the case with Mr. Yarrell ; every- 

 thing that could be learned in the library or museum he had learned 

 with the utmost assiduity and patience, had arranged with masterly 

 skill, and had so combined and massed that his history, regarded as a 

 history, left nothing to be desired. Mr. Johns 1 work is the very reverse 

 of all ; of the bibliography of Ornithology he seems to know abso- 

 lutely nothing, except as contained in ' Yarrell ' and the ' Zoologist ;' 

 but he makes up for this deficiency of book-knowledge by his evident 

 acquaintance with our familiar birds in a state of Nature. His sketches 

 have all the appearance of being from life, and are in a great many 

 instances as vigorous as they are faithful. I select copious examples 

 to illustrate this remark. 



" The Wagtail. — The pied wagtail or dishwater is a familiar and 

 favourite bird, best known by its habit of frequenting the banks of 

 ponds and streams, where it runs, not hops, about, picking insects 

 from the herbage, and frequently rising with a short jerking flight to 

 capture some winged insect which its quick eye has detected hovering 

 in the air. Its simple song consists of but few notes, but the tone is 

 sweet and pleasing, and is frequently heard when the bird is cleaving 

 its way through the air with its peculiar flight, in which it describes a 

 series of arcs, as if it were every iustant on the point of alighting, but 

 had altered its mind. While hunting for its food it keeps its tail in 

 perpetual motion. It shows little fear of man, and frequently approaches 

 his dwelling. It may often be noticed running rapidly along the tiles 

 or thatch of a country house, and it not unfrequently takes its station 

 at the point of a gable or the ridge of the roof, and rehearses its song 

 again and again. Very frequently, too, it perches in trees, especially 

 such as are in the vicinity of ponds. Next to watery places it delights 

 in newly-ploughed fields, and hunts for insects on the ground, utterly 

 fearless of the ploughman and his implements. A newly-mown garden 

 lawn is another favourite resort; so also is a meadow in which cows 

 are feeding, and to these it is most serviceable, running in and out 

 between their legs, and catching in a short time an incredible number 

 of flies. The country scarcely furnishes a prettier sight than that 

 afforded by a family of wagtails on the short grass of a park in July or 

 August. A party of five or six imperfectly fledged birds may often 

 be seen scattered over a small space of ground, running aloout with 



