30 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The birds were very abundant along the road, feeding among Rnssijtn 

 thistle. Hundreds also were feeding in alfalfa and in the wheat 

 stubble, many alighting in plowed fields. Eighteen were collected and 

 an examination of their stomachs revealed : 1 thysanuran ; 19 collem- 

 bolans ; 102 Homoptera, 76 being aphids (of which 14 were pea aphids) 

 and 13 leafhoppers. Hemiptera constituted the largest group with 

 1,527 recognizable specimens, of which 980 were adult and 291 nymphal 

 false chinch bugs and 39 mirids. The 133 beetles included 46 weevils 

 of which 8 were alfalfa weevils, 1 a clover leaf weevil and 19 adult 

 clover root curculios. Ten of the 29 Hymenoptera were ants ; most of 

 the 14 Diptera were adults. In addition to the insects there were 8 

 spiders and mites, 92 seeds and a number of stomachs contained vary- 

 ing amounts of plant fragments." 



Practically all the pipit's food is obtained on the ground, in short 

 grass or low-growing herbage, on bare ground or open mud flats, on 

 drifted sea wrack along the coast, and on the salt or brackish marshes 

 along tidal streams. On its alpine breeding ground it has been seen 

 picking up insects on the snowbanks, where they had been blown by the 

 wind. In all such places it walks along daintily on its long legs, pick- 

 ing up seeds or insects from the ground or herbage, sometimes running 

 rapidly in pursuit of an escaping insect. Mr. Cogswell writes to me : 

 "On January 11, 1942, at Dominguez Lagoon, south of Los Angeles, I 

 observed pipits varying their usual ground foraging procedure by 

 perching on the branches of tall weeds growing in the shallow water 

 and reaching for insects (?) among heads of the plants." 



Mr. Trautman (1940) reports an interesting feeding reaction: "I 

 saw some 20 individuals of this species on a peat island near the east 

 end of Cranberry marsh. They faced a moderate breeze, and indi- 

 viduals from the group were flying into the air 3 or 4 feet, capturing 

 moderate-sized flying beetles, and then dropping upon the island 

 again. Usually 4 or 5 birds were in the air at once. The continual 

 bobbing up and down was a strange sight, and somewhat resembled 

 that of trout in a pool rising after insects." 



Lucien M. Turner says in his unpublished notes that about the whal- 

 ing stations in northern Ungava, where the carcasses of the white 

 whales are left to rot, incredible numbers of flies are attracted and 

 their maggots "fairly make the earth creep." Great numbers of 

 pipits resort to these places to feast on these larvae. He also saw 

 these birds wading in the shallow pools on the tidal flats, searching 

 for aquatic worms and larvae. 



Behavior. — Pipits are essentially terrestrial birds and spend most 

 of their time on the ground, in the fields, meadows, marshes, mud 

 flats, beaches, or on the bare rocks of their summer haunts. Some 

 writers have stated that they never alight anywhere else, but such is 

 certainly not so. In Labrador we frequently saw them walking on 



