“Wagtails go hopping along in a lively manner over the sand at the water’s edge, looking for little worms. Every now and then they fly up a few feet into the air, balance, pirouette, and alight again on some slight elevation. They may also be seen skipping across the fields among the sheep and standing on the backs of the latter even in the shepherd’s presence, in order to get the parasitic insects lurking under the wool. They live on small slugs, moths, flies, and larvæ.
“Midway between birds eating only seeds and those eating only insects must be placed, in respect to their food, those that have a mixed diet and eat, according to season, place, and circumstances, insects and seeds, larvæ and berries. Their beak has [[244]]neither a strong, conical structure like that of purely granivorous birds, nor a delicately slender form like the beak of the insect-eaters, but is between these two extremes. This beak, instrument of general utility, is found in the lark, that bringer of gladness to our plowed fields; in the thrush and the blackbird, lovers of grapes and juniper-berries, but not less fond of insects; in the oriole, that superb black and yellow bird so appreciative of cherries flavored with toothsome larvæ; and in the starling, devourer of figs, grapes, insects, slugs, and various kinds of seeds.
“The starling is a magnificent bird almost as large as a blackbird, brilliant with glints of metallic luster on a dark background. Its color is black with greenish sheen on head and wings and violet on breast and back. Most of the feathers are adorned with a reddish-white spot at the very end. It nests under the roofs of buildings, in dove-cotes, and in hollow tree trunks. The nest, composed on the outside of straw, and within of dry grasses and feathers, contains four spotless whitish eggs. Starlings come to us in the autumn. They fly in large flocks, whirling about like grain winnowed in a sieve and sending forth piercing cries from high up in the air. They alight in marshes and damp meadows, where they destroy much vermin.” [[245]]
CHAPTER XXXII
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS
“Now let us go back to the principal slender-beaked birds, eaters of insects only and consequently our greatest helpers. They are all small in size, delicately and gracefully formed, and modest in dress. Among them we find the sweet singers that make the woods echo in spring with the refreshing songs of the opening season.
Nightingale
“First there is the nightingale, clothed all in brown except the under parts, which are whitish in color. Listen to it some calm evening in May. All is quiet, so we need not lose a note of the bird’s hymn. It begins with a few timid and tentative phrases, thus: