

WSl 



THE FULL CHORUS 95 



plaintive. Part of the charm of the pipits' songs comes from 

 their habit of uttering them while rising and falling in the 

 air, as if borne on an invisible fountain. The titlark or 

 meadow - pipit rises 

 from earth and re- 

 turns to its tussocks of 

 grass again, the rock- 

 pipit wavers from 

 crag to crag on the 

 cliffs, and the notes of 

 both sound plaintive 

 in their vast sur- 

 roundings. The tree- 

 pipit haunts clumps 

 and avenues of tim- 

 ber and well-grown 

 hedgerows, tossing 

 into the air from their 

 boughs, or sometimes 

 singing on a high 

 perch ; and perhaps 

 it is only the more 

 cheerful environment 

 of green pastures and 

 budding May boughs 

 that gives a gayer 

 note than that of its 

 kindred to its rapid ditty ending with an emphatic ' See, 

 see, see.' 



The free and flowing songs make a great contrast with the 

 set ditties, and the difference between the two types provides 

 one of the best means of learning to distinguish our different 

 song-birds. As we pause at the edge of the beech-wood on 



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