46 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



species. The distinctions are given under the field marks of the former 

 bird. 



Enemies. — ^As a bird of open country and a common one at that the 

 meadow pipit is largely preyed upon by hawks. Reference to Jour- 

 dain's account of British birds in the Handbook of British Birds (1939, 

 vol. 3) shows that it has been definitely recorded in the dietary of 

 every British-breeding bird of prey that takes birds at all, with the 

 exception of the marsh harrier and the kite. Even the bold peregrine 

 (duck hawk) and the stately golden eagle will condescend to take 

 a meadow pipit on occasions, while it may be said to constitute the main 

 food in the breeding season of the merlin (pigeon hawk), which fre- 

 quents similar country. It is also largely taken by the hen and Mon- 

 tagu's harriers, near relatives of the marsh hawk of America, also 

 birds of open country, and it quite frequently falls a victim to the 

 European sparrow hawk, which though primarily a woodland bird 

 regularly hunts over open ground. 



The meadow pipit is one of the species most commonly parasitized 

 by the European cuckoo. 



A list of invertebrate parasites of the species is given by Niethammer 

 (1937). 



Fall and winter. — Fall is a time of active movement among meadow 

 pipits, and the movements in the British Islands illustrate on a smaller 

 scale those that take place over the general range of the species. 

 Birds from the northern and more elevated regions abandon these 

 for the winter, and, though many emigrate, some are contented to 

 spread over the lower ground at no very great distance from their 

 breeding haunts, so that the species becomes common in many places 

 where it does not nest or does so only sparingly. It is evident, how- 

 ever, that many of these wintering birds are migrants that have come 

 in from abroad. They are now to be found in flocks and parties on 

 open fields and rough grasslands of all sorts and on waste or culti- 

 vated land, with a noticeable liking for wet or partially flooded ground, 

 which also attracts them to the borders of lakes and inland waters 

 and to coastal salt or other marshes. They are also often found feed- 

 ing on arable land among root crops such as rutabagas or turnips and 

 may be observed picking over debris along tide marks on the seashore. 

 The flocks are largest at the migration period in fall. Later, partly 

 no doubt because many of those in the fall flocks were birds of pas- 

 sage that have passed on, but also as the result of a general tendency 

 to dispersal, the parties are generally smaller. They do not main- 

 tain any close coherence; the birds scatter rather widely over their 

 feeding grounds and when approached rise in ones and twos or little 

 groups rather than as a body. At night they roost on the ground, 

 making use of such shelter as offers. It may be provided by the over- 

 hanging leaves in a turnip field or by other broad-leaved plants in a 



