104 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



perhaps of a little liair. I once found a very singular nest 

 of this bird near Eastbourne. It was entirely composed ex- 

 ternally of fine seaweed mixed with the dried egg-capsules of 

 the common whelk, and lined with hair. Mr. Jeffery states 

 (Zoologist, p. 1034) that he shot two Rock-Pipits on a 

 small island in Chichester Harbour, and was surprised to 

 find in the stomach of both bones and other remnants of small 

 fishes. It often happens that small gobies and other fish 

 are left by the receding tide to die and dry up, and in this 

 case they would become an easy prey to the Pipits, otherwise 

 it is difficult to imagine in what way their capture could be 

 eflfected by these small birds. In addition to these fishy 

 remains were small seeds of several kinds. 



Mr. Booth states, in his ' Rough Notes,-* that he has occa- 

 sionally observed a few of these Pipits along the flat portions 

 of the Sussex coast from Pagham to Brighton. The muddy 

 pools of brackish water inside of the shingle banks are their 

 favourite haunts. The chalk cliffs between Brighton and 

 Eastbourne, and the neighbourhood of Fairlight and Hastings, 

 are resorted to during the breeding season. Pevensey and 

 Winchelsea levels are visited about the same time, and those 

 of the flat districts to the west of Brighton, where they feed 

 only b}^ those pools which are impregnated with salt. The 

 ten specimens mentioned in the ' Zoologist,' p. 792, s. s., as 

 having been taken near Brighton between tlie 16th and 20th 

 of March, 1861), and at first mistaken for Antlms spipoletta, 

 proved, on further investigation, to be the Scandinavian form 

 of the Rock-Pipit. 



