1 1 8 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG 



and song, it so closely resembles the tree-pipit and 

 the meadow-pipit as for a long time to have been 

 confounded with them' (op. cit. vol. i. p. 394). 

 The water-pipit {Anthus aquations) is described by 

 Bree as singing like the tree-pipit (pp. cit. vol. ii. 

 p. 167). The songs of the tree-pipit and meadow- 

 pipit, though delivered in much the same manner, 

 have few tones common to both : the former bird has 

 much the greater variation, the most frequent phrase 

 being as follows : Chee chee chee cJiee eechaw eechaw 

 whee whee whee whee whee whee ; or eechaw eechaw 

 chee chee chee cJiee judge judge judge judge whee whee 

 whee whee, and so on. The meadow-pipit, on the 

 contrary, rises crying, Miwick Miwick cJn}wick, 

 repeated many times, and descends singing, tsee tsee 

 tsee repeated ; or else it changes the accent from 

 the first to the second syllable in the first cries, 

 and ascends with chuwick cJiuwuk repeated, with 

 the same ending as before. Bree wrote that the 

 cry of the tawny pipit (Anthus rufescens] " is very 

 like that of the short-toed lark ' (pp. cit. vol. ii. 

 p. 177). Mr. Saunders places the larks between 

 the crows and the swifts ; but they seem more 

 closely allied to the pipits, both by structure 

 and habit. The British skylark resembles the 

 tree-pipit not only in the habit of flying when 



