Mode of Taking.—I often hear it said that the blue-breast is a rare bird; that in some parts of Germany it appears only every five, or even ten, years, but I can declare that this opinion arises from a want of observation. Since I have taught my neighbours to be more attentive to the time of their passage, they every year catch as many as they please. If in the first fortnight of April, up to the 20th, cold and snow return, plenty may be found by merely following the streams, rivers, and ponds, especially in the neighbourhood of a wood. A proper place is chosen, near the water and a bush, meal and earth worms are thrown there, with limed twigs, and soon these poor birds, if ever so little pushed towards it fall blindly into the snare; they also fall into white-throat traps and nightingale nets. In autumn, when they frequent cabbage grounds to hunt for caterpillars, plenty may be caught by planting here and there sticks with limed twigs fastened to them, baited with meal-worms. At this season they sometimes go to the water trap, but this is not usual. If it happens that any are caught in nooses or spring traps baited with elderberries, hunger must have been the cause, and they must have been entirely destitute of food.
Attractive Qualities.—Its beauty, sprightliness, sociability, and song, unite in rendering the blue-breast delightful. It runs very swiftly, raises its tail with a jerk, and extends it like a fan, keeping it and the wings in perpetual motion, uttering the cry of “fide, fide” and “tac, tac.” It is unfortunate that it gradually loses the fine blue on the breast in successive moultings, when confined to the house, and becomes at length of a whitish grey. In a few days it will become tame enough to eat meal-worms from the hand, and it will not be long before it comes for them when called by the voice or whistle. Its song is very agreeable; it sounds like two voices at once; one deep, resembling the gentle humming of a violin string, the other the soft sound of a flute.
When at liberty in the room it always seeks the sunshine, and sleeps on its belly. Its notes very much resemble those of the common wagtail, but much improved by a violin-like hum.
THE COMMON WAGTAIL.
Motacilla alba, Linnæus; La Lavandière, Buffon; Die weisse Bachstelze, Bechstein.
This species, well known throughout the old world, is seven inches in length, of which the tail measures three and a half. The beak, five lines long, is black, and very pointed; the iris is dark; the shanks, an inch in height, are slender, and black; the upper part of the head, as far as the nape, is black, but the rest of the upper part of the body, the sides of the breast, and lesser wing-coverts, are bluish ash grey; the forehead, cheeks, and sides of the neck are white as snow; the throat, as far as the middle of the breast, is black.
The female is without the white forehead and cheeks, the black top to the head being somewhat smaller. Some females have been found with very little of the black cap, and even without it, the head then being of the same colour as the back.
The young ones, which are seen in large flocks with the yellow wagtail around herds of cattle, are so different before the first moulting, that they have been considered a distinct species, under the name of the grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea). In fact, the whole of the upper part of the body is grey, more or less pale; the throat and belly dusky white; the breast is generally crossed by a band, sometimes entire, sometimes broken, of a grey or brownish colour, and the quill-feathers are whitish on the outer edge.