EGGS OF BEITISH BIRDS. 265 



placed in a meadow amongst the grass, at others in a hollow under 

 a stone, and very often under the shelter of a reed-tussock in a 

 little swampy patch of ground. The nest is made of moss and 

 dry grass, and lined with finer grass, hair, and sometimes a few 

 rootlets ; it is rather loosely put together, but always carefully 

 finished inside, and varies considerably in size and form, according 

 to the peculiarities of the site. 



The eggs of the Meadow Pipit are from four to six in number, 

 and are pale bluish or brownish-white in ground-colour, profusely 

 mottled and speckled with spots of brown, amongst which the 

 paler underlying markings can usually be detected. The variations 

 are not very important, and the eggs of each clutch are generally 

 alike. When the eggs are very thickly spotted, many of the spots 

 become confluent, and there is little variation in colour ; but when 

 the spots are fewer, the difference in the ground-colour makes an 

 important difference in the appearance of the egg. On many eggs 

 fine hair-like streaks occur, principally on the large end. They 

 vary in length from 0'85 to 0'75 inch, and in breadth from 0"6'2 

 to 0*55 inch. 



THE RED-THROATED PIPIT. 



{An thus cervinus.) 



Plate 58a, Figs. 11, 12. 



The Red-throated Pipit occasionally visits our islands, and has 

 frequently occurred on Heligoland and in most other countries 

 in Europe. It breeds on the tundra above the limit of forest- 

 growth from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it becomes rarer 

 west of the Ural Mountains, and in Northern Scandinavia is 

 very local. 



The nest is entirely made of dry grass, the coarser pieces being 

 used for the foundation, and the finest reserved for the lining. 



The eggs are from four to six in number ; they bear a general 

 resemblance to those of the Tree Pipit, and, like the eggs of that 

 bird, may be divided into two types. One of these, like its repre- 

 sentative in the Tree Pipits' eggs, is very similar to the eggs of 

 the Meadow Pipit, but the markings are seldom so profusely 

 distributed over the whole surface of the egg ; the other type, 

 in which the spots are darker and much more distinct, and 



