236 
Birds. 
THE GREY WATER WAGTAIL. (Motacilla boaruhi. , 
There is not a brook purling along two flowery banks, 
not a rivulet winding through the green meadow, which 
is not frequented by this beautifully coloured and ele-* 
gantly shaped little creature. We even see them in the 
streets of country towns, following with quick pace the 
half-drowned fly or moth, which the road-side streamlet 
carries away. Next to the robin redbreast and the 
sparrow, they are the boldest in approaching our habita- 
tions. The Wagtails are much in motion ; seldom perch, 
and perpetually flirt their long and slender tails, (whence 
they derive their name,) principally after picking up 
some food from the ground, as if that tail were a kind of 
lever, or counterpoise, used to balance the body on the 
legs. They are observed to frequent, more comnionty, 
those streams where women come to wash their linen ; 
probably not ignorant that the soap, the froth of which 
floats upon the water, attracts those insects which are 
most acceptable to them. 
