CHAPTER IV. 



Tree Pipit. 



ASSING down Rye- Lane Peckham, one day, I saw four 

 of these birds in a cage in the window of a bird- 

 shop where at various times I have been able to pick 

 up a rarity, and never having seen any of them in 

 such a situation before, I went in and asked their price. 

 I quite forget what I paid for them, but not a great 

 deal, I dare say. The dealer was feeding them on 

 bread and milk with an occasional mealworm thrown 

 in by way of encouragement. They were fairly tame, 

 and would take the wriggling "millers" from between 

 his finger-tips, but made a sad bungle of killing and 

 eating their prey, from which I concluded that they 

 were not in the habit of devouring anything as large 

 as the full grown larva of Tenebrio molitor, but confined 

 their attention, when at liberty in their native woods, 

 or groves, or copses, to flies and "small deer" of that 

 kind. 



