158 NATURAL HISTORY 
WATER WAGTAIL. 
There is scarcely a brook purling along 
between the green confinement of two flow- 
cry hedges, not a rivulet winding tlirough 
the green meadow, not a river pacing across 
the country, which is not frequented by this 
well-coloured and elegantly-shaped lilll# 
creature. We even see him often in the 
streets of country towns, following, with® 
quick pace, the half-drowned fly or moth 
which the canal-stream carries away. Neil 
to. the red-breast and the sparrow, they come 
nearest to our habitations ; and are too well 
known to need description. 
