Waggonette

“ But the waggonette, after two or three desperate plunges, righted itself and continued its mad career at the heels of the mare.
“What would happen if we went over? Jolly awkward to get pitched over on to my head or down among the mare’s feet! She’d kick, I guess! Those fellows inside could jump and— By Jove! there comes something on the road! ”

“ These are far less desirable, surely, than a seat in a waggon in a beautiful meadow or cornfield. Old Duck, being too ponderous to walk, was driven about in a waggon, sitting at the rear with his huge, short legs dangling down; and, the waggon being halted in a commanding position, he overlooked his men at work.
One day he was put in a cart instead, and the carter walking home beside the horse, and noting what a pull it was for him up the hills, and drawling along half asleep, quite forgot his master, and dreamed he had a load of stones. ”

“ One can scarcely walk along the banks of a British stream in spring or summer without noticing a pretty and graceful bird, sometimes running along near the edge of the water, and stopping every now and then to pick off an insect from the herbage, and sometimes rising into the air to catch a fly or gnat. And one can easily understand why the name wagtail has been given to it, for no matter whether it is flying or running, its tail is never still. ”

“ The yellow wheat and stubble, the dull yellow of the waggon, toned down by years of weather, the green woods near at hand, darkening in the distance and slowly changing to blue, the cloudless sky, the heat-suffused atmosphere, in which things seem to float rather than to grow or stand, the shadowless field, all are there, and yet are not there, but far away and vision-like. The waggon, at last laden, travels away, and seems rather to disappear of itself than to be hidden by the trees. It is an effort to awake and move from the spot. ”

“ Buffaloes, giraffes, and elephants can be seen from the waggon as we trek along, but the bush is so thick we cannot follow them. Shot a bastard eland before reaching the pan, which we secured by sending my two boys to protect it whilst we outspanned, as the distance was only a few hundred yards from the pan. The flesh is very good eating. Inspanned at 5 p.m., and treked four miles, as it came on to rain with thunder, and outspanned for the night in the bush. Made three large fires round oxen, to keep off lions that were constantly prowling about the waggon. ”

“ Suddenly she throws herself, with a jump and a bound, into the air, to catch the circling gnat; and now should be seen the beating of wings, the darting hither and thither, the balancing and the shakes and the allegretto that her tail keeps time to. Nothing can surpass it in lightness. In fine, of all the little feathered people, none, except the swallow, is more graceful, fuller of movement, more adroit or insinuating, than the wagtail. ”

“ The pied wagtail Motacilla lugubris is a common and generally distributed species in the British Islands, and common throughout northern Europe, but migrating southwards over a relatively narrow range in winter. The white wagtail, M. alba of Linnaeus, has a wide range in Europe, Asia and Africa, visiting England almost yearly, and chiefly differing from the ordinary British in its lighter-coloured tints—the cock especially having a clear grey instead of a black back. ”

“ Some of the wagtails stay with us all the year round, but most move southward as winter approaches, and when the weather becomes severe, cross the Channel to seek a warmer climate. In Spring they are one of the ploughman’s companions, for often it is only in the freshly-turned furrows that they can then find the insect food they need, but later on they seek the neighbourhood of water where winged things assemble, and there love to paddle in the shallows. ”

“ Having paid this tribute to my bump of caution, I bought a waggon and a span of oxen on Sir Henry's behalf, and beauties they were. It was a twenty-two-foot waggon with iron axles, very strong, very light, and built throughout of stink wood; not quite a new one, having been to the Diamond fields and back, but in my opinion, all the better for that, for I could see that the wood was well seasoned. If anything is going to give in a waggon, or if there is green wood in it, it will show out on the first trip. ”

“ The Gray Wagtail visits these upland streams for the purpose of rearing its young. Not every wanderer by the water-side is fortunate enough to get a peep at this bird’s domestic arrangements. It has, fortunately perhaps, a happy way of concealing its nest under some large stone or overhanging rock, or in a quiet nook, not necessarily in a secluded spot, but often close by the wayside, where the very audacity of the selection proves a source of safety. ”

“ The pied wagtail is probably not more abundant in this country than the yellow wagtail, but is far better known, being a more generally diffused species, often seen in the neighbourhood of houses where the yellow wagtail never comes. And if there be a pied wagtail anywhere within range of sight, it is sure to be seen and recognised, for in its black-and-white plumage it is the most conspicuous small bird in this country, not excepting the kingfisher, snow-bunting and blackbird. ”

“ What an immense difference between the force of a kite, a buzzard or a hawk, and such small birds as the meadow-wagtail; and yet these little birds, by their common action and courage, prove superior to the powerfully-winged and armed robbers! In Europe, the wagtails not only chase the birds of prey which might be dangerous to them, but they chase also the fishing-hawk "rather for fun than for doing it any harm;" ”

“ Pied wagtails are no respecters of persons as far as other birds are concerned; I have seen a single wagtail at one time pursuing a peewit, at another a sandpiper, and their encounters with swallows on the grass are most amusing to watch. When the swallows are flying low the wagtails will deliberately fly at them and even for a little way after them. ”

“ Take the middle of the boat, laddie, and hold to Dan. Give me a hand to help me in; for I’m weak and shaking yet. The Lord’s will be done, but I never thought to be sailing the seas in a cockleshell like this,” added the good man, as the boat rocked under his sturdy weight when he sank heavily into his place.
“I say so, too. Let’s hire something better,” replied Dud Fielding, eagerly.
“Thar ain’t nothing better or safer than this here ‘Sary Ann’ along the shore,” said the boat’s master, grimly. “I sot every timber in her myself. She ain’t got a crack or a creak in her. ”

“ They all pick up feathers or grass, and hop from side to side of their mates, as if saying, "Come, let us play at making little houses." The wagtail has shaken her young quite off, and has a new nest. She warbles prettily, very much like a canary, and is extremely active in catching flies, but eats crumbs of bread-and-milk too. ”

“ To attain this object, the sea-hawk hovers above the gannet, (which is the bird most usually selected for attack,) and, darting rapidly down, strikes him on the back of the head, causing him to disgorge his prey, which is seized by the hawk with an inconceivable rapidity before it reaches the water, and afterwards soars aloft to look out for another object of attack. It is not an uncommon circumstance to observe a single gannet selected from a flock, and come out to be the subject of attack, as if he had been called by the hawk in preference to the others. ”

“ So likewise has the Gray Wagtail oft been our sole bird companion on many a Highland water, both on the mainland and in Skye. We never tire of watching its sylph-like actions, the dainty way it poises on the stones or flits along before us stage after stage in undulating flight uttering its cheery chiz zit as it goes, or of admiring the exquisite blending of its showy yet delicately coloured plumage. ”

“ It seems as if every tuft has come to life. But through it all the little birds sleep on the waving rushes, secure from all harm in that resting-place which no enemy can approach, without the water splashing or the reeds shaking and waking them.
When the morning came, the wagtails believed at first that the events of the day before had been a beautiful dream.
They had taken their landmarks and flew straight to their nest, but it was gone. They flew searching over the heath and rose up into the air to spy about. There was not a trace of nest or tree. ”

“ I could hardly avoid the conclusion that these birds had collected in view of migration. The Gray Wagtail, Anderegg tells me, is never to be seen here 187 in the winter, and the white species seldom; but as to what becomes of them I am unable as yet to be sure. Perhaps they simply move down the river into the lower and warmer districts of western and northern Switzerland; just as in England also there is a general movement of Wagtails in the autumn from the more mountainous districts into the regions of plain and meadow. ”

“ The tail of this bird is also an inch shorter, and has only two feathers on each side, partly white. The under parts of the male are of a much fuller yellow, and the upper parts never possess any of the cinereous colour.
The spring wagtail visits us about the time the other departs, and migrates again in September. It frequents arable land, especially in the more champaign parts; sometimes uncultivated ground interspersed with furze; it is also partial to bean fields; in all such places it breeds, and does not seem to regard water so much as either of the other species. ”

“ Like all the birds of this family, the Wagtail is much admired for the elegance of its form, its activity, and the airy lightness of its motions. It seems ever on the move, runs with great rapidity a quick succession of steps in pursuit of its food, and goes from place to place in short undulating flights. ”

“ The beans and peas and corn,—all things that had lifted their green growth too proudly, were crushed to the earth. But far worse than this was the havoc wrought on the beach. One half of the wharf was down. The small boats, torn from their moorings, had disappeared entirely. The motor boat Jim and Dud had hired for the season was stove in upon the rocks. The “Sary Ann,” stranded upon the shoals of Numskull Nob, to which she had been swept by the gale, lay without mast or rudder, leaking at every joint. ”

“ M. flava.—There were many Blue-headed Wagtails all down the Meuse from Givet, but they were commonest in the wide meadows above Hastière. Some hawked flies over the river, returning to perch near the spot they started from; they usually hawked higher in the air than the White Wagtails. These Wagtails perched habitually in the willows and the young fruit trees planted along the path by the river. A male without a tail had a most extraordinary appearance.
Anthus trivialis.—Fairly common; about the edges of woods, &c. ”

“ How many a man’s life has centred about the waggon! As a child he rides in it as a treat to the hay-field with his father; as a lad he walks beside the leader, and gets his first ideas of the great world when they visit the market town. As a man he takes command and pilots the ship for many a long, long year. When he marries, the waggon, lent for his own use, brings home his furniture. ”

“ It is the end of July, the young wagtails are abroad with their parents, like human families, a month or two later, gone out or abroad to take their holiday. “Often,” he says, “one may see them wading in shallow places, in quest of insects and worms, carefully holding up their tails to prevent them being draggled. If you watch the motions of an individual just coming up to join the party, you see it alight abruptly, twittering its shrill notes, and, perching on a small stone, incessantly vibrate its body, and jerk out its tail.” ”

“ When walking or standing, the tail is continually flirted up in the manner of the Wagtails, whence the local name of Kick-up, though, perhaps, none but a negro would consider a motion of the tail, kicking. The resemblance of this bird to the Wagtail, Wilson has noticed, and it is very striking in many respects. It walks among the low grass of pastures, picking here and there, wagging the tail, and uttering a 152sharp chip. Now and then it runs briskly, and snatches something, probably a winged insect, from the grass. ”

“ Another and daintier species, however, is almost his equal in this respect, and that is the Gray Wagtail. This bird is more susceptible to the changing seasons, and at the approach of winter deserts the higher streams altogether, or comes down to the lower and more sheltered reaches of others. The Gray Wagtail is a familiar bird along all our Yorkshire and Derbyshire streams and rivers. We look for him quite as a matter of course when we reach [25] the rocks, and the alder and birch and mountain-ash trees, just as we expect there to find the Dipper. ”

“ The yellow wagtails run about confidently on the meadow-like plots of grass around the outer margin of the thicket; that marvel of prettiness, the bearded titmouse, climbs fearlessly up and down on the reeds, whose tops are graced here by a redbreast and there by a gray shrike. From all sides the cheerful, though but slightly melodious song of the sedge-warblers strikes the ear, and we listen with pleasure to the lay of the black-throated thrush, to the lovely singing of the blue-throat, the wood-wren, and the icterine warbler, and to the call of the cuckoo. ”

“ To load a waggon successfully is indeed a work of art: on the hills where the waggons have to run ‘sidelong’ to pick up the crops, one side higher than the other, no one but an experienced hand can make the stuff stay on. Then there is often a tremendous bumping and scraping of the keel on the rocks of the newly-mended roads, and the nasty chopping seas of the deep ruts, besides the long regular Atlantic swells of the furrows and ‘lands.’ So that the cargo had need to be firmly placed in the hold. ”