MEADOW PIPIT 45 



has disturbed it on the gi'ound. And, true to its characteristic love 

 of the open, it rarely if ever perches in the cover of foliage. The 

 flight as a rule is rather flitting and jerky, rising and falling in a 

 somewhat erratic fashion rather than regularly undulating as with a 

 good many small birds. Outside the breeding season the species is 

 inclined to be gregarious, though the members of a party or flock 

 generally maintain only a somewhat loose contact. 



Voice. — The note when the bird is flushed is a feeble, thin, squeaky 

 tseep or fsiip, or in point of fact more usually an unbroken string of 

 these shrill notes uttered in quick succession. The call note, heard 

 chiefly on the breeding ground, is a more sibilant and slightly fuller, 

 but still shrill fissip or tisp, the disyllabic form being typical though 

 not invariable. The oj)ening notes of the song have much the same 

 quality. The tinkling sequence of simple notes gathers speed as the 

 bird flutters up from the ground to, at most, a hundred feet or so and 

 as it planes down again passes into a succession of slightly more musi- 

 cal notes finally becoming a trill, which continues till the singer reaches 

 the ground. On the descent the bird glides down with wings partly 

 spread and inclined somewhat upward and the tail fanned, but there 

 are minor variations in this song flight. At the top of the ascent it 

 may fly a little way more or less level before beginning to drop, or it 

 may even sink a little and rise again, prolonging the song accordingly. 

 The length of the song and the relative duration of the two parts, the 

 rise and fall, vary a good deal. Timings of the total length quoted 

 by E. M. Nicholson (1936) range from 12 to 25 seconds. Shorter, more 

 imperfect versions may be given from bushes, fences, or other low 

 perches or even from the ground. In the south and midland parts of 

 England the period of regular song is from about mid-March to early 

 in July. Occasional song may be heard from mid-February and after 

 the regular song period is over until the beginning of August. As an 

 exceptional occurrence it has been noted as late as mid-September and 

 even October. 



Field 7narks. — An obvious pipit, but rather smaller than the Ameri- 

 can species, and much more strongly marked, both back and breast 

 being boldly streaked with black. The exact coloring of the upper- 

 parts varies from olive or greenish gray to browner shades and the 

 white outer tail feathers are conspicuous when the bird is flushed. It 

 is a bird of open country, little given to perching on trees, though 

 it will do so at times. In Europe it requires to be distinguished from 

 the very similar tree pipit {Anthus trivialis)^ which, as the common 

 name suggests, perches in trees habitually and has a different song. 

 However, as this species has not occurred in America and does not 

 appear likely to do so, it need not detain us further. In the nonbreed- 

 ing plumage the red-throated pipit also much resembles the present 



