PERCHING BIRDS. 95 
both ground and markings have a more purple tone 
than the preceding one; in the fifth the ground is pale 
reddish, minutely speckled all over with a darker shade 
of the same colour, but allowing the ground to be seen. 
The sixth has a still redder ground, but is so minutely 
freckled as to appear at a little distance of a uniform 
red. The six I have thus described I selected for my 
cabinet out of a large number I had collected, but they 
all varied so much that I had great difficulty in choosing 
such as I wished to retain as specimens. The variation, 
too, extends to the shape, some being rather short, with 
the small end very pointed, while others are more 
elongated, and some again almost oval. 
The eggs of the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) 
have a brownish-white ground uniformly marked all 
over with minute specks of hair brown; the only 
variation is that the general hue of some is darker, 
from the specks being more thickly distributed. Mon- 
tagu says that some are tinged with red, but I never 
met with such. 
The Titlark, as it is commonly called with us, is a 
constant resident, but it is my impression that our 
numbers in summer are much greater than in winter. 
It is partial to cultivation, and its nest I have usually 
found in the meadows, placed on the ground, sometimes 
at the foot of a tussock of grass or a tuft of weeds. 
The Skylark (Alauda arvensis) is as abundant with 
us as it is everywhere else. I do not think one of our 
native birds hasso cheerful and inspiriting a song; it 
seems prompted by the very exuberance of joy and 
gladness, as if it could not be contained or controlled. 
What wonder, then, that both poetry and music should 
have chosen it for its theme; it would, indeed, be an 
