196 The Meadow-Pipit. 



with us generally in the second or third week of April, and the male bird soon 

 makes his presence known by his loud song, which has some resemblance to both 

 that of the Canary and the Sky-Lark ; he also attracts attention b}' his common 

 habit of soaring from a tree to a moderate height, and descending slowly, singing 

 his best, with tail outspread and legs hanging, to the perch from which he started 

 or another close by it, without coming to the ground : this habit has, in some 

 places, gained him the name of "Wood-Lark"; but I need hardly say that the true 

 Wood-Lark (Alauda arboreaj is a very distinct bird, which differs from the present 

 species in many essential particulars, and whose song is in ever}' waj' far superior 

 to that of the Tree-Pipit." 



This note of Lord Lilford's is of considerable interest, as I am satisfied that 

 in many parts of England, the Tree- Pipit is confounded with the Wood-Lark ; though 

 more particularly by people born and bred in the countr}' ; the most difficult of 

 all to convince of their errors. 



Gatke says that the Tree-Pipit is one of the few birds \\hich have attempted 

 to breed in Heligoland ; " unfortunately the attempt was unsuccessful, for the nest 

 with four eggs of the type with brown spots like burnt marks, was destroyed by 

 cats ; it had been placed against a large tuft of grass in the middle of a large 

 hedged-in grass-plot, about a hundred paces in diameter, which adjoins my garden, 

 and was protected against every possible disturbance by human hand." 



Family MO TA CIL L 11). n 



The Meadow-Pipit. 



Anthus praknsis, LiNN. 



ACCORDING to Howard Saunders the breeding range of this, the smallest 

 of our Pipits, "extends from the North Cape over the greater part of 

 Europe to the Pyrenees, the northern portions of Italy and the Carpathians, 



