186 ANTHUS PRATENSIS. 



the breeding season, the male is easily alarmed, and flutters 

 over an intruder, emitting its shrill notes ; but while incubat- 

 ing, the female will allow a person to walk close to her without 

 rising ; and when she does fly off, it is with a cowering flutter- 

 ing motion, with the tail expanded, as if she were under the 

 influence of disease or extreme terror. I have several times 

 caught the female while sitting on her eggs, by creeping up, hav- 

 ing previously marked the nest, and clapping my hand upon it. 

 The nest is usually placed on a grassy bank, or beside a tuft or 

 turf, and is often so sunk into the ground as to be with great difii- 

 culty discovered. It is bulky, but neatly constructed, the ex- 

 terior being formed of stems and leaves of grasses, the interior 

 of finer straws, and sometimes of fibrous roots, with occasionally 

 a good deal of hair. The eggs, generally five, but varying from 

 four to six, are of a regular oval form, from nine to nine and 

 a half twelfths long, about seven and a half twelfths across. 

 They vary much in colour, but generally have a light grey, or 

 brownish-white ground, dotted and freckled all over with pur- 

 plish-grey, reddish-brown, or dusky, the dots most abundant 

 on the larger end, where they are often so thick as entirely to 

 conceal the ground colour. They are generally deposited about 

 the middle of April, and the young are abroad by the end of 

 May. Another brood appears about the middle of July. 



Young. — When fledged, the young differ little from the old 

 birds. The plumage of the upper parts has the dark brown 

 spots larger, and their margins dull greenish-yellow ; the spots 

 on the fore-neck and breast are larger; and the breast and 

 sides are strongly tinged with light red. The outer tail- 

 feather has the inner web white in its terminal half, the 

 outer web grey towards the end, white in the middle and nearly 

 to the base ; the second has a small white spot at the tip. 

 The bill is dusky above, yellowish beneath ; the feet and claws 

 pale reddish-yellow. 



Progress toward Maturity. — Little change takes place at 

 the first moult, which is completed towards the end of autumn. 

 Young birds are more brightly tinted than old ones, at least 

 the green colour of their upper parts is brighter. As the bird 



