TAWNY PIPIT. 24) 
where olives and vines are cultivated, wherever the rocks permit, I did not 
meet with it at all. It is especially common on the undulating prairie 
country, half rock and half grass and heath, between Athens and Marathon. 
The Tawny Pipit is a somewhat early migrant for a bird having such 
a southern range. It crosses the Mediterranean during the month of 
April, a few even appearing as early as the last week of March. It arrives 
on the southern shores of the North Sea and the Baltic late in April; but 
Nilsson says that it does not reach South Sweden before May. The 
return migration commences late in August, and is said to be all over by 
the end of September. 
In many respects the habits of the Tawny Pipit resemble those of a 
Lark. It runs with great swiftness on the ground, then suddenly mounts 
some stone or little elevation, looks round, calls to its mate in a prolonged 
double note (something like zer-vee), moves its tail up and down, dis- 
appears, and runs on again. ‘This monotonous double note is often heard 
during the breeding-season, as the male is perched on a bunch of heath or 
some other conspicuous tuft of herbage. Of its habits in Algeria Dixon 
writes :—“The Tawny Pipit in the more elevated parts of Algeria is very 
common, and is a bird that cannot easily be passed unseen. To look at its 
plumage one might almost expect to meet with it only in the Desert; but 
in summer, at any rate, it does not frequent that sandy waste, and we only 
met with it on the elevated plateaux beyond Constantine and in the neigh- 
bourhood of Batna and Lambessa. The road between these two latter 
places runs through rich meadows and _ barley-fields, and abounded with 
Tawny Pipits in abundance. I saw them only in pairs ; they were very 
tame, and often allowed themselves to be almost trodden upon before 
they would take wing. I often saw them running about very quickly over 
the bare pieces of ground, stopping now and then to look round to see if 
they were being pursued. When flushed they would often fly for a littie 
distance in a very straightforward manner, not undulating, as their usual 
flight is, and perch on a little tuft of higher vegetation, or ona boulder, 
or even a paling. Many of the birds were on the road, where you 
could witness their actions very closely as they ran up and down like a 
Wagtail, often giving their tail a sharp jerk, accompanied by a flicking 
movement of the wings. They seemed to especially prefer a large un- 
enclosed plain of rough land on which no crop was sown, what we 
should call summer fallow in England. Here I repeatedly saw the birds 
soar into the air for a little way and sing their loud but simple song, 
which put me in mind of the Sky-Lark’s notes, although not go rich or so 
sweet. It does not soar so high as the Tree-Pipit, and seems anxious 
to get to the ground again. When alarmed by the report of a gun, 
the birds close at hand would generally rise for some distance into the air 
and betake themselves to safer quarters in a drooping flight, uttering 
VOL. Il. R 
