THE GREY WATER WAGTAIL. (Motacilla boarula.)
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 elegantly 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 habitations. 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 commonly, 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.
PIED WAGTAILS.
There are two common species of Wagtails, the Grey kind and the Pied Wagtail. The Grey Wagtail is retiring in its habits, and much slower in its motions; its breast is yellow, and its wings grayish, but the Pied Wagtail, which is a very lively little bird, and seems always in a bustle, is black, softening into ash-colour and white; it is also bold, and will take the food thrown to it with as much confidence as a robin redbreast.
The Yellow Shepherdess (Budytes flava) is another species of Wagtail. The male is olive-green on the back, and yellow on the lower part of the body, but the breast of the female is nearly white. These birds do not frequent the banks of rivers, but are generally found walking among the grass of meadows, and following sheep. They are summer visitors to England.