124 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



and know that of the two parties in our 

 affection it is I who have given my heart, 

 whilst the bird only consents to be loved. 

 He is gone, and part of the morning 

 brightness with him! 



The Pipit's breeding season extends over 

 many months of the year. Eggs are laid 

 early in August, and I have noticed parent 

 birds still collecting food at the end of 

 March. Probably the early breeding pairs 

 rear a second brood, but nests are more 

 plentiful, I think, in late summer and early 

 autumn than in spring, and this would seem 

 to show that some couples breed but once 

 and then late in the season. This year, 

 certainly, we got two nests in the autumn 

 for every one in the early months. 



Almost any spot unlikely to be trodden 

 by stock serves for a nesting site, very 

 steep banks and almost precipitous hill 

 slopes are favourite places, but nests are 

 often built on the flats, beneath a sheltering 

 tuft of tussock, or where a friendly stick 

 or sturdy fern frond will fend off grazing 

 beasts. Sometimes the Pipit has built even 

 in the trampled, stock-trodden, house pad- 



