LARKS AND PIPITS 119 



singing, but also in the final notes of its early spring 

 songs ; these notes consist of a somewhat plaintive, 

 prolonged, and repeated whistle, descending in pitch 

 during its utterance. This note is abandoned by 

 both skylark and tree-pipit towards the end of the 

 season of song, and the habit of flight in song 

 is at the same period less frequently exhibited. 

 Though this whistle is not the common call-note of 

 either adult skylark or pipit, it is similar to the 

 call-note employed by the young skylark, not only 

 during the period of helplessness, but on through 

 the first winter. It is a slurred whistle which may 

 be written thus : 



8ve. 



ee • uh. 



The common call-note of the adult skylark may be 

 written worry you pronounced very quickly. Wilson, 

 writing of the American shore-lark, states that in 

 autumn "they fly high in loose scattered flocks, and 

 then have a singular cry, almost exactly like the sky- 

 lark of Great Britain " {pp. cit. vol. i. p. 85). They are 

 said to mount high and sing on the wing. Yarrell has 

 the following : — " The song of the cock is lively and 

 not very loud, and is more generally delivered when 

 the bird is standing on some elevation than when on 

 the wing, though at times an observer might fancy he 



