MEADOW PIPIT. 183 
of theirs. Occasionally they may be seen in the streets of 
towns, driven thither by stress of weather. 
The late Bishop Stanley in his truly-named ‘Familiar 
History of Birds,’ mentions the fact of one of these little 
birds having alighted on board a vessel, in the midst of the 
Atlantic Ocean, thirteen hundred miles from the nearest part 
of America, and about nine hundred from the wild and barren 
island of Georgia. They move in a southerly direction in 
the autumn, to avoid severe weather. 
This is one of the many different kinds of birds which 
feign being wounded, in order to entice away apparent in- 
truders from their young, in whose safety, and even in that 
of the nest and eggs, they display the greatest interest. At 
times they may be seen wading into the water, and washing 
themselves with much apparent satisfaction. They are alert 
and nimble in all their movements, ‘watchful and wary.’ They 
are easily tamed. 
Their flight is but short and unequal, that of a very homely 
bird of passage. They have some more immediate object in 
view in their movements, than to cross the ocean and visit 
a far distant clime. In the days of summer they hover 
occasionally over or about their nest, singing the while, and 
now and then settle on a low bush, or a rail, alighting with 
a sweep, or sometimes almost perpendicularly; but their mother 
earth is their more natural resort, and from thence ‘their 
sober wishes seldom learn to stray.’ Akin to the Wagtails, 
this species frequently oscillates its tail when standing on 
some mound of earth, or stone, or other eminence, especially 
on first settling, and generally perches and roosts on the 
ground. 
The food of the Titlark consists of insects, worms, small 
slugs, and shells—of course with their contents. These it 
searches for on the ground. 
Its song, which is soft and musical, though with little 
variety, is uttered on the wing, when watching about its 
nest, and also, occasionally, when perched. It is commenced 
generally about the middle of April, but has been known 
earlier, not unfrequently in March, and on one occasion so 
soon as the 4th. of February: it lasts till July. The ordinary 
note is a gentle ‘peep; from whence, probably, the name of 
Pipit; and, when alarmed, a ‘trit, trit.’ 
The nest is placed either on or close to the ground, often 
in marshy places, among grass, near a tuft, on the branch 
