ae THE AMERICAN PIPIT. 
awkward squad with young Blackbirds; a trim form and a natty suit often 
save him from well merited derision, but all close observers will agree that 
there is a screw loose in his make-up somewhere. The whole Pipit race 
seems to be struggling under a strange inhibitory spell, cast upon some an- 
cestor, perhaps, by one knows not what art of nodding heather bells or po- 
tency of subtly distilled Arctic moonshine. As the flock comes straggling 
down from the northland they utter unceasing yips of mild astonishment and 
self-reproach at their apparent inability to decide what to do next. Their in- 
decision is especially exasperating as one rides along a trail which is closely 
flanked by a primitive rail fence, as I have often done in Okanogan County. 
One starts up ahead of you and thinks he will settle on the top rail and watch 
you go by. As his feet near the rail he decides he won't, after all, but that 
he will go a few feet farther before alighting. If he actually does alight 
he instantly tumbles off with a startled yip, as tho the rail were hot and he 
had burnt his toes. ‘Then he tries a post with no better success, until you get 
disgusted with such silly vacillation and inane yipping, and clap spurs to your 
horse, resolved to escape the annoyance of having to follow such dubious 
fortunes. 
In social flight the Pipits straggle out far apart, so as to allow plenty of 
room for their chronic St. Vitus’s dance to jerk them hither or thither or up 
or down, without clashing with their fellows. Only a small percentage of 
those which annually traverse the State fly low enough to be readily seen; 
but when they do they are jolting along over the landscape and complaining 
at every other step. The note is best rendered tlip-yip, less accurately pip-it 
(whence of course the name) ; and a shower of these petulant sounds comes 
spattering down out of the sky when the birds themselves are nearly or quite 
invisible. 
The fall migrations of this species appear to have a compound character. 
Birds which make their appearance early in September are likely to quarter 
themselves in a given locality for several weeks at a time, tho whether these 
represent the first refugees from the high North, or mark the practical retreat 
of our own mountaineers, we cannot tell. Late comers pass thru more rapidly, 
and the main host clears by late October, but stragglers may be found in any 
open lowland situation until late November. They are especially partial to 
prairies, close-cropped pastures, the gravelly shores and bars of rivers, lakes 
and ponds, and the shingle of sea-beaches. At Semiahmoo the great ricks of 
barnacle-covered piles, which are annually corded on shore at the close of the 
fishing season, are regarded in the light of a Pipit hotel. The birds not only 
shelter among the timbers, but, after the fashion of Sandpipers, glean busily 
from their surfaces where the marine creatures, thru exposure to the air, are 
dying a fragrant death. 
The return movement of spring sets in early, and the main flight is more 
