40 TEE SMALLER BRITISH BIRDS. 



probably have on several occasions been mistaken for one of the 

 commoner species. Several specimens in the Edinburgh University 

 Museum, which Macgillivray found differently labelled, he believes to 

 be this bird, which Bechstein, Temminck, and Meyer, call aquaticus, 

 as do also Richardson, who found it in the Arctic Regions, and 

 Swainson. 



So our red-breasted visitor comes and goes not quite certain as 

 yet of his position in the various systems of classification, or of the 

 name which properly belongs to him. They tell us that his nest 

 is built in mountainous regions, in the neighbourhood of water, but not 

 on the sea-shoi'e: perhaps on the slope of a heathery hill, where the 

 lady birch droops her graceful tresses, and the red-berried rowan puts 

 out its scarlet clusters by the dark still waters of the mountain 

 tarn; where the husky crow of the black cock is heard amid the 

 quietude, and the wild deer comes to drink, and is startled by the 

 hoarse caw of the corbie, or the croak of a raven from the neigh- 

 bouring glenj woe be to the four or five eggs, of a dull grey colour, 

 covered all over with faint brown spots, if they should discover 

 where the nest is hidden. 



On the 22nd. o£ March, 1867, S. L. Mosely reports the shooting of 

 a specimen of this rare bird near Huddersfield, where it was found 

 in the company of some Meadow Pipits; this is the second specimen 

 which is known to have occurred in Britain. 



THE TREE PIPIT, 



{^Anthus arboreus.) 



PLATE III. — FTGDEE IT. 



This pretty little bird has a variety of popular names, such as the 

 Field Titling, the Field, Lesser Field, Thick-heeled Field Lark; the 

 Lesser-Crested, Grasshopper, or Meadow Lark; most of them, like its 

 scientific names, conveying the impression that it is a small kind of 

 Lark. It is a migratory species with us, generally making its appear- 

 ance in the southern parts of the country on or about the 20th. of 

 April, and in the northern counties and Scotland a fortnight later, and 



