THE TREE PIPIT. 43 



are of a reddish-white shade clouded with pale purplish- 

 grey and faintly streaked and spotted with rusty black; 

 others, again, are pale purplish -red, minutely marked 

 in a net-like manner with red of a darker shade; which 

 is surely enough of variation to puzzle even the most 

 experienced of oologists. It is to be noted, however, 

 that no matter how greatly the eggs of an individual 

 bird differ in appearance from those of her fellows, the 

 eggs that occur in a given nest are almost invariably, 

 if not always, marked and coloured in the same manner. 



This species must not be confounded with the Meadow 

 Pipit, or Titlark, to which in some respects it bears 

 no inconsiderable resemblance, but the latter is of a 

 much lighter colour on the under-surface of the body 

 and lacks altogether the pale slate-blue tinge that is so 

 conspicuous on the breast of the former and which serves 

 to differentiate it from its congeners. 



The tail of the Titlark also is shorter than that of 

 the bird under consideration, which on the whole is 

 more like a Wagtail than a Lark, and is thought by 

 some naturalists to form a kind of connecting link 

 between the two families. 



Bechstein appears to have confounded the Tree and 

 the Meadow Pipits with each other, for the latter he 

 names Ant/ms arbor eus, which is the correct scientific 

 appellation of the former. 



