TITLARK 



541 



Titlark ^" addition to being slightly smaller, the titlark, or 



^Anthus pratensis) '^leadow- pipit, is broadly distinguished from the 

 preceding si)ecies by the circumstance that the claw 

 of the hind-toe is nearly straight and longer than the toe itself The 

 titlark is, moreover, a darker bird than the tree-pipit, the upper-parts 

 being olive-brown with darker stripes, while there is a dull white band 

 above the eye, and the outer pair of tail-feathers is white only 

 towards the tips, while the under-parts, especially the flanks, are more 

 heavily spotted, although less so in the hen than in the cock. After 

 the autumn moult the whole plumage assumes a buff tinge ; this 

 being still more pronounced in young birds, 

 which are less heavily spotted than young 

 tree-pipits. 



The geographical range of the titlark 

 includes all central and the greater part of 

 northern Europe, and extends eastwards 

 through Asia as far as the valley of the Obi. 

 In the British Islands, where it is one of the 

 most familiar of birds, alike on commons, 

 moorlands, and other open tracts, as well as 

 on marshes by the coast, it is a resident 

 species, migrating, however, in autumn towards 

 the eastern and southern districts, and in some 

 cases leaving the country for the winter. 

 Such travellers, it is said, may be recognised 

 on their return in spring by their brighter 

 plumage, as compared with that of their 

 stay-at-home relatives. The nest, which is 



always on the ground, is built of dried grasses, mixed with a certain 

 amount of moss, and lined with hair or fine grass, and containing at 

 the proper season from four to half-a-dozen eggs, which are subject to 

 very considerable variation in the matter of colour and markings. The 

 general hue is, however, brown, produced by mottlings on a light ground, 

 but sometimes so developed as to form a practically uniform coating, 

 with only an occasional hair-like line. 



Nearly allied to this species is the red-throated pipit, or titlark 

 {Anthus ce)'vin2is\ which breeds from Scandinavia in the west to Siberia 

 in the east, and migrates in winter to Egypt, India, Burma, and China. 

 During these periodical journeys a stray individual has now and then 

 wandered to the British Islands. One, for instance, was killed in 

 Shetland in 1854, a second in Kent in i88c, a third in Sussex in 



