158 OUR FAVOURITE SONG BIRDS 



contrast with richer and more pretentious melody. 

 This song is uttered (as is usual in the present 

 group) whilst the bird is on the wing, and chiefly 

 during the return flight to the perching place, the 

 upward movement being generally accompanied by a 

 rapid repetition of the call-note, but sometimes made 

 in absolute silence. This Pipit starts its song flights 

 from a perch on a wall, large stone, or low bush, 

 and not from trees. Meadow Pipits are generally 

 much more abundant in a locality than Tree Pipits 

 ever are, and consequently their music often fills 

 the air, the birds rising and falling in short song 

 flights here, there, and everywhere on the waste. 

 The song of this Pipit is neither so loud, so varied, 

 nor so rich in tone as that of the preceding bird ; it 

 is also of shorter duration ; perhaps we might class 

 it as of about the same merit as that of the Hedge 

 Accentor. This Pipit continues in fair song for 

 about three months. 



The Meadow Pipit pairs annually, and early in 

 the year. Its nest may be found in a great variety 

 of places — on the moors, the broads, the cultivated 

 farm-lands, the commons, and even by the wayside, 

 on little frequented country roads. It is always 

 built upon the ground, and almost as invariably well 

 concealed. Sometimes a site is selected among the 

 meadow grass ; sometimes under a stone or a bush, 

 or amongst the long moss in a swamp ; at other 

 times the long heather, a tuft of rushes, or the 



