212 The Irish Nahiralist. ' November, 



directly I espied it, was walking to and fro over a patch of 

 dead sea-weed, now and again stooping to pick something 

 up to eat. The bird saw me approaching, but evinced 

 little fear at my presence ; it only retreated from me a 

 few yards, stopping to pick at the sea-weed when I ceased 

 following it. Having a full view of it, and the light being 

 good this morning, I was able to surmise by its form, 

 general pattern of plumage, and its ambulatory movements, 

 that it must be a Pipit of some sort. However, it 

 was tamer, stood higher, looked larger and darker, than a 

 Meadow-Pipit, walked with more deliberation and more 

 slowly that the Meadow -Pipit is wont to do, and was quite 

 silent, whereas the Meadow -Pipit, more often than not, 

 chirps when moving about on foot. Taking all these 

 points into consideration I deemed it wise to collect this 

 bird on suspicion of its being a strange species. This it 

 turned out to be, for before I even picked it up I saw by 

 its flesh-coloured legs, characteristic short and curved hind- 

 claw, the latter very distinct from the long "spur" of 

 the Meadow-Pipit, and by its robust beak, that it was 

 truly another Tree-Pipit. Then without disturbing it 

 from the pose it assumed when it fell, and before rigor 

 mortis had time to set in, or the cornea of the eye to pucker 

 and sink,^ I secured a photograph of my bird in the flesh, 

 taken five minutes after death had ensued. The figure repro- 

 duced (Plate 4c) from this photograph portrays the bird lying 

 lifeless on the drift sea-weed, among which a few minutes 

 before it had been foraging for food. On examining this 

 specimen I find it differs from the first Tree-Pipit obtained 

 in being slightly smaller, its wings are slightly shorter pro- 

 portionately, and it is lighter in weight. Unlike the first 

 bird its condition is rather poor, though its gizzard is full 

 of food stuffs ; the gizzard of the first was empty, though 

 the bird was well nourished — indeed fat. The particulars 

 similar to these made out for the first specimen are summa- 

 rised as follows : — Total length — 15*7 cm. Wing — 7*9 cm. 



^ The glassy front (cornea) of a bird's eye begins to shrink or pucker 

 in an hour or less after death, and this greatly detracts from the beauty 

 of a fresh dead specimen in the flesh. 



