OF BIRDS. 
The WHITE WAGTAIL. 
The bill, head, neck, chin and breaft are black. The 
forehead, cheeks, and Gdcs of the neck are white, the two 
outer tail feathers obliquely marked with white. 
It inhabits Europe, is migratory, appears early 
in the fpring, frequenting villages, and conftantly 
flirting its tail. 
The Swedifh farmers fay, when you fee the 
Wagtail return, you may put your fheep into the 
fields; wlten you fee the wheat-ear, you may low 
your grain. So ufeful is the information we may 
acquire, by obferving the animal creation. In 
England the Wagtail continues all the year, but 
in the winter it moves from the North to the 
South. 
The Wagtail is a very fmall bird, but his long 
tail makes him appear much larger than he ready is. 
As he flies hefpreads his tail, which is a confider- 
able fupport, and enables him to turn, to gambol, 
to rife and fall in the air. 
Wagtails run lightly along the ground, moving 
very nimbly, clofe to the edge of the water ; and 
fometimes they juft ftep into the little wave, 
formed by the water as it fpreads on the fhore ; 
but they moft frequently flutter upon the dams of 
mill pools, or frequent the fidcs of (hallow ftreams, 
hopping 
