184 MEADOW PIPIT. 
of a very low bush, a bank, or a wall of turf. It is com- 
posed of grass, the finer portions constituting the lining, with 
occasionally a little moss and hair. One has been known to 
be built on the end of a plank, which formed part of a heap 
of timber. 
The eggs are from four to six in number, of a light reddish 
brown, or reddish white, or pale brown, or pale blue colour, 
mottled over, especially near the larger end, with darker 
brown. They vary much in depth of colouring, some being 
much darker than others; hardly any two sets are exactly 
alike in this respect. 
The eggs are laid about the middle of April, and the young 
are abroad by the end of May. A second brood is often 
produced about the middle of July. 
Male; weight, between four and five drachms; the length 
varies fons six inches and about a half, to six and three 
quarters; bill, dusky, excepting on the edge of the upper and 
the base of the lower, which incline to pale yellow brown: a 
line of dusky spots extends from it down the side of the 
neck; another stretches over it; iris, dark brown. Head, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, brown, the middle of the 
feathers being darker, and the edges much lighter: after the 
autumnal moult the whole assumes a tinge of rich olive; chin, 
throat, and sides of the neck, pale yellowish, brownish, or 
rufous white; breast, light rufous white, spotted with dark 
brown; below, dull white, tinged with brown, the whole 
ground-colour attaining a yellowish tint after the autumnal 
moult; back, as the nape. 
The wings expand to the width of from ten inches to ten 
and three quarters: the first four feathers are nearly equal in 
length, the first is the most pointed, some say that it is the 
longest, but it is the third that is so; greater and lesser wing 
coverts, brown, broadly edged with light brown; primaries, 
brownish black, narrowly bordered with light brown, changing 
seasonally to olive, and at other times to ash-colour: the 
outer one has a white edge; secondaries and tertiaries, brownish 
black, edged with light brown, changing in the same way in 
the autumn, and at other times occasionally to ash-colour. 
The tail is nearly two inches and a half in length; the two 
middle feathers shorter than the others, and “dark brown, 
highter towards the edge; the outer one on each side dull 
white, or very light brown on the outer web, with a small 
patch of brown on the broad inner web; the next on each 
