144 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
be easily distinguished by the hind claw of the 
present species being shorter and the beak thicker 
and stronger than that of the Meadow Pipit. Yar- 
rell has mentioned other distinctions, but these two 
always appear to me to be the most reliable, espe- 
cially in identifying stuffed specimens. In habits 
and manners the two species differ considerably: 
the present species is only a summer visitor to 
England arriving about the end of April, and is 
much more addicted to perching on trees or the 
top branches of low bushes, from whence it will 
constantly arise, and after hovering in the air for 
a short time singing it will again return to the 
same or another neighbouring tree or bush. 
The food of the Tree Pipit consists of various 
sorts of insects, beetles and grasshoppers, as well as 
flies, gnats and their larve. 
The nest is placed on the ground, sometimes in 
plantations or woods, and sometimes under low 
bushes or tufts of grass, and occasionally on a 
grassy bank of a wood-hedge:* itis made of moss, 
roots and dry grass, and lined with finer grass and 
hair. 
The Tree Pipit has the beak dark brown, the 
base of the lower mandible pale yellow-brown; 
irides dark hazel; head and neck streaked light 
brown and dark brown, almost black; feathers on 
* Yarrell, vol. i., p. 449. 
