74 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



fields, parks, and open grounds in coppices, by the 

 water-side, on the country highways, and even in 

 swamps. The Meadow Pipit appears to pair annually 

 and very early in the season. The nest is invariably 

 made upon the ground, under the shelter of a stone, a 

 tuft of herbage, or a little bush, and very frequently 

 amongst the wet moss on the marshes, or in the centre 

 of a tuft of rushes. It may also be found very often 

 amongst the long grass on a bank, or in heather and 

 ling. The nest is simple and loosely put together, made 

 in the first place of moss, dry grass, and bits of heath 

 and reed, and lined with finer grass, fine roots, and 

 horsehair. The Meadow Pipit sits closely, usually not 

 leaving her nest until it is- nearly under our feet. This 

 species cannot be described as social during the breed- 

 ing season (although it is gregarious enough during 

 autumn), but numbers of nests may be met with in a 

 comparatively small area. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Meadow Pipit are four or five in 

 number, occasionally six. They are white, suffused 

 with brown or pale bluish-green, in ground colour, 

 mottled, spotted, and speckled with various shades of 

 brown, and with paler brown underlying markings. 

 Sometimes a few hair-like streaks of blackish-brown 

 occur chiefly on the larger end of the &^^. Usually the 

 markings are so closely distributed that little of the 

 ground colour is visible ; but in others the spots are 

 larger, fewer in number, and sometimes form a zone 

 round the larger end of the egg. Average measurement, 

 •79 inch in length, by "58 inch in breadth. Incubation, 

 performed mostly by the female, lasts fourteen days. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Meadow 

 Pipit may be readily identified by their small size and 

 brovv^n appearance. 



