Mr. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 185 



about the 20th of April, 1835 : it is the only individual that 

 has come under this gentleman's observation. A specimen 

 set up by Mr. Wm. S. Wall, of Dublin, is stated to have been 

 shot in the vicinity of the Custom-house in May, 1837- In 

 the southern counties of Cork and Kerry it has not been met 

 with by my correspondents. 



Meadow Pipit, Ant hus prat ensis, Bechst. — This bird is 

 very common in Ireland, from the meadows adjacent to the sea- 

 shore, and occasionally the shore itself, to the mountain tracts 

 of the very greatest elevation. It is permanently resident, but 

 suffers much from severe frost and snow, and during such 

 times is occasionally driven for food to the streets of Belfast, 

 where it has been noticed after even two nights of frost. I 

 once saw a meadow pipit walk into the sea and deliberately 

 give itself a complete washing. It is mentioned by my rela- 

 tive that one of these birds feigned being wounded for the 

 purpose of withdrawing his attention from its nest. My friend 

 at Cromac has frequently found the nest of the meadow pipit 

 on the banks of water-courses and drains, as well as on the 

 ground in fields. One which was known to him at the side of 

 a drain was discovered by some bird-nesting boys, who pulled 

 the grass away that concealed it. On visiting it the next day, 

 he observed a quantity of withered grass laid regularly across 

 the nest ; on removing this, which from its contrast in colour 

 with the surrounding herbage he considered must have been 

 placed here as a mark by the boys, the bird flew off the nest ; 

 and on his returning the following day he found the grass si- 

 milarly placed, and perceived a small aperture beneath it, by 

 which the bird took its departure, thus indicating that the 

 screen which harmonized so ill with the surrounding verdure 

 had been brought there by the bird itself. The same gentle- 

 man once introduced the egg of a hedge accentor into a mea- 

 dow pipit's nest, containing two of its own eggs ; but after a 

 third egg was laid, the nest was abandoned. 



The stomach of one of these birds, examined by me in De- 

 cember, was chiefly filled with minute coleopterous insects, 

 but also contained worms, minute fragments of brick, and two 

 perfect specimens of the shell Bulimus lubricus. This pipit 



