1 70 INS EC TI VO RO iTS BIRDS 



by themselves or with their young, are seen by daylight 

 almost in any green or biown field, or heard at nightfall, 

 when other birds are making straight for home by all the 

 rural short cuts known to them. A direct flight of, say, 

 25 yards will occupy about five seconds, while a run in a 

 straight line of 15 yards will take approximately the same 

 time. Wherever a dry channel offers itself the bird will 

 use it for escape by running, and in this way I noticed, 

 some time ago, a young White-fronted Chat trying to evade 

 observation and make its escape. By way of comparison, 

 both feign well an injury or youthful weakness to distract 

 your attention from the nest of eggs or young that the 

 parent birds have been forced to leave owing to your 

 presence. I fear their decoy hopes are not as advantageous 

 to them as " silence is golden " would be, for the nest 

 would seldom be found were it not for their own aid in 

 rising from it, and plainly saying by their action " There 

 it is. All you have now to do is to look for it witlijn the 

 limited bounds prescribed for you ; but, remember, the law 

 protects me ! " 



The young are early models of the old. Before leaving 

 the saucer-shaped nest of grass material the outer two 

 rectrices are white, each with a central longitudinal dark 

 line, and this before these feathers are an inch in length. 

 The little birds early learn to catch the worms which 

 appear after a heavy rainfall in such plenty, and juvenile 

 Pipits soon find themselves doing well in business. 



Associated with it in the field is a Bush- or Thick-billed 

 Lark (Mirafra), and so much are they alike that most of us 

 do not know there are twin-like birds in the field. The 

 Mirafra has a stout bill, and is shorter in the body. The 

 food of the Pipit is ground-living animals, as worms and 

 beetles (Scarabidai). 



