The Tree-Pipit. 193 



this diet. Soaked ants' eggs soon become sour, especially in hot weather ; and 

 I find that when dry or only slightly damped, birds eat them just as readily. The 

 opinion of Mr. Abrahams, based upon the experience of a lifetime, was also weighty; 

 and he recommended that his food for insectivorous birds should be mixed with 

 double the quantity of bread-crumbs. 



In my opinion none of the Wagtails are delicate ; but if the birds are overfed, 

 they are far more liable to disease than when fed moderatel3\ It must always be 

 borne in mind, that birds in cage or aviary do not have to seek their food ; there- 

 fore their tendency is to eat more than is good for them. 



Family— MO TA CILLID^. 



The Tree-Pipit. 



Aniline trivialis, LiNN. 



THIS species breeds in Northern and Central Europe from Tromso iu Norway 

 south-westwards to the British Isles, the Pyrenees, and the mountains of 

 northen Italy, and south-eastwards as far as the Crimea, to the north-east 

 from the valley of the Petchora, the Ural Mountains, and the valley of the Yenesay 

 in Siberia, also through Turkestan to the Altai Mountains. South of the Pyrenees 

 and Northern Italy the Tree- Pipit is met with on migration and in winter, as also 

 in Morocco and Algeria in N.W. Africa, eastward to Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia. 

 It has even been said to occur as far to the south as Caffraria. 



In Great Britain this bird only occurs as a summer visitor, being pretty 

 generally distributed and common in England, with the exception of western 

 Cornwall and Wales, where it is scarce ; in Scotland it is rarer and far more local, 

 with the exception of the neighbourhood of Glasgow where it is abundant. It has 

 not been met with in Ireland, according to Howard Saunders ; but Mr. C. W. 

 Benson (in the "Zoologist" for 1878, p. 348) mentions the occurrence of a pair in 



