TREE PIPIT. J93 



them, as they are so cunningly concealed, and as the birds gene- 

 rally run several yards from them before they mount into the 

 air. The nest on which I caught the old ones being in a park 

 which had been grazed by cattle, and very near a plantation, 

 afforded me an excellent opportunity of observing their motions. 

 When they fed their young ones, which they did with flies, 

 caterpillars, and worms, they always alighted at the distance of 

 twenty or thirty feet fi'om their nest, cowering and making zig- 

 zag windings, and now and then putting up their heads, and 

 looking around them with the greatest anxiety and circumspec- 

 tion. They are seldom met with in my neighbourhood ; and 

 in the long space of fourteen years I have seen only two or 

 three of their nests." 



The food of this species is similar to that of the Meadow 

 Pipit. The contents of the stomach of one which I examined 

 in June 1836 were remains of insects, but chiefly husks of 

 very small seeds, with a considerable quantity of mineral frag- 

 ments. 



YouxG. — The young when fledged are similar to the old birds, 

 but have the bill paler, the upper parts more tinged with green 

 and marked with darker spots, the lower parts more yellow. 

 One before me, just able to fly, on the 6th of June, has the bill, 

 tarsi, toes, and claws flesh-coloured, the upper mandible tinged 

 with brown ; the plumage is coloured as in the adult, but the 

 spots on the fore-neck are narrower, and those on the back of a 

 deeper tint. Another from the nest, sent to me by Mr Weir, 

 has the bill and feet flesh-coloured, the feathers of the upper 

 parts brownish-black, margined with light greyish-yellow, the 

 lower parts of a paler tint of the latter colour, the fore-neck 

 marked with elongated brownish-black spots, the two lateral 

 tail-feathers greyish-white on the inner web, the exterior pale 

 brownish-grey on the outer web. 



