152 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



Pipit frequently rises from one tree and settles in 

 another during the progress of these song flights ; 

 but later on when the nest is made, he usually 

 selects some special tree in the vicinity from 

 which he soars. This perch is either on some bare 

 or dead branch, or at the very summit of the tree 

 if amongst the leaves. Occasionally the song is 

 uttered as the bird sits on its perch, but then the 

 prolonged concluding dcmble note is omitted, this 

 being apparently peculiar to the descent. The Tree 

 Pipit is a very pertinacious singer, and spends most 

 of the day engaged in these soaring flights and 

 melodious songs. This song may be heard right 

 through the summer, but becomes less frequent after 

 the young are hatched, and is finally lost in the 

 autumnal moult which begins about the middle of 



July- 



Although this Pipit, as its name implies, is a bird 

 of ihe air and the tree-tops, its nest is invariably 

 placed upon the ground. This nest is generally 

 made in May, and its usual situation is amongst the 

 herbage of the fields, not unfrequcntly in very 

 exposed situations, where the grass is cropped short 

 by cattle. May-meadows and corn-fields are very 

 favourite places, but sometimes a hedge-row bank, 

 or a slope in the woods is selected, and occasionally 

 the herb ge beneath a little bush on the open 

 common. The nest is [laced in a slight hollow, and 

 is made of dry grass, moss and roots, and lined with 



