FASS.ERES. ( 116 ) MOTACILLID^. 



THE TREE PIPIT. 



MEADOW LARK, TREE LARK, GRASSHOPPER LARK, PIPIT LARK, 



SHORT-HEELED FIELD LARK, FIELD TITLING, 



LESSER CRESTED LARK. 



Anthus trivialis. 



There is music uninformed by art 



In those wild notes, which, with a merry heart, 



The birds in iinfrequented shades express. 



Dryden. 



This interesting summer visitor generally arrives in Ber- 

 wickshire from the south about the first week in May, and 

 leaves us in September and October. 



Shortly after its arrival in spring, it may be found 

 thinly dispersed in pairs throughout the various wooded 

 districts of the county, being partial to the neighbourhood 

 of tall trees in deans, and the sides of streams. In this 

 respect it differs from the Meadow Pipit, which inhabits 

 open meadows and moors. The high elm and ash trees 

 by the side of the Tweed near Finchy Shiel in the 

 vicinity of Paxton, are a favourite resort of this bird. 

 Mr. Hardy mentions that it frequents similar trees at 

 Cockburnspath ; also that it is seen in Penman shiel Wood, 

 Lamington Dean, Pease Dean, Dowlaw Dean, Aikieside 



1 Mr. Andrew Kelly mentions that the Tree Pipit is often mistaken for the 

 true Woodlark {Alauda arborea) in Lauderdale, and is called the Woodlark there. 

 — Hist. Ber. Nat. Cluh, vol. viii. p. 144. 



