176 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



the penultimate pair, have less cream-colour. A. s. jerdoni 

 (Himalayas) is darker and browner on upper-parts. Distinguished 

 in adult plumage from all other British Pipits by the uniform 

 coloration of its upper -parts. 



Field -CHARACTERS. — Haunts sand-dunes, plains and barren hill- 

 sides. Song, metallic cadence uttered during flight. Stands high 

 on legs and looks larger than anj^ other British Pipit except 

 Richard's ; also runs with great speed. Throat and under-surface 

 uniform pale buff-cream; broad whitish eye-stripe (F.C.R.J.). 



Breeding-habits. — Breeds on hillsides and barren plains, nesting 

 in depression of ground sheltered by tussock, bush or vine. 

 Nest. — ^Neatly built of grasses, roots, etc., lined some hair. 

 Eggs. — Generally 4-5, rarely 6, closely spotted and mottled with 

 brown, and violet shell -marks, on whitish ground. Occasionally 

 markings form cap or zone. Average of 137 eggs, 21.9 x 15.7 mm. 

 Breeding -season. — Begins mid-April in north Africa and end of 

 May or early June in central Europe. Probably two broods 

 sometimes, as eggs have been found in July. Incubation. — 

 Lasts 13-14 daj's ; performed by hen only (Naumann). 



Food. — Chiefly insects (coleoptera, orthoptera, diptera, and their 

 larvae, also larvse of lepidoptera), all taken on the ground ; no 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Thirty or more in past fifty years 

 in autumn on Sussex coast, where jVIr. M. J. Nicoll in 1904 con- 

 sidered it an annual \asitor, and had evidence that a pair bred 

 1905, and again possibly 1906. Elsewhere very rare straggler — ■ 

 one Scilly Isles, Sept. 1868 ; one Yorks., Nov. 20, 1869 ; one Hants., 

 1879 ; one Lowestoft (Suffolk) Sept. 2, 1890 ; one Yarmouth 

 (Norfolk) Oct. 9, 1897 ; one Cornwall Sept. 16, 1899 ; one Cley 

 (Norfolk) Sept. 15, 1910. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Europe from south and middle Sweden 

 to Mediterranean and north-west Africa, east to central Asia. 

 In winter in tropical Africa and north-west India. The existence 

 of a smaller form is doubtful. 



ANTHUS TRIVIALIS 



70. Anthus trivialis trivialis (L.) — THE TREE-PIPIT. 



Alauda trivialis Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 166 (1758 — Sweden). 

 Anthus arboreus MacGillivray, Hist. Brit. B., 11, p. 188 ; Thompson 

 B. Ireland, i, p. 224. 

 Anthus trivialis (Linnaeus), Yarrell, i, p. 569 ; Saunders, p. 131. 



