SPARROWS, WAGTAILS, AND PIPITS 199 



plumage and brightly marked, but they gradually 

 become much less ornamental during their stay. 

 They frequent garden walks, stepping about over 

 them very much as wagtails do, but on the 

 slightest alarm take flight to the nearest trees, and 

 there walk about along the branches in a way that 

 wagtails seldom or never do. All the time that 

 they are on the ground and whilst pacing on the 

 branches they keep their tails in constant rocking 

 motion, and on preparing to take flight they have 

 a strange habit of swaying themselves about for 

 a time. When alarmed or anxious they go on 

 repeating a peculiar highly-pitched note at brief 

 intervals. 



Anthus rufulus thoroughly merits the name 

 Jerdon gives to it of "the Indian tit-lark," for it 

 is singularly lark-like both in appearance and ways. 

 It is sure to be found in almost every garden 

 containing open spaces in which the grass is kept 

 down by grazing, or is only mown at comparatively 

 wide intervals. In the old days, when the grass 

 in the Botanic Garden at Shibpur was allowed to 

 run wild, tit-larks, together with small button-quails, 

 Turnix dussumieri, used to haunt the place in great 

 numbers; but with the increased regard for horti- 

 cultural amenity that marked the management of 

 the late superintendent, Sir George King, both 

 birds gradually appeared in diminishing numbers, 

 and are now rarely to be seen within the limits of 



