84 OUR RARER BIRDS 



young birds ; if it contains fresh eggs only, the parents are 

 not nearly so anxious, and usually fly right away from the 

 vicinity. In some few cases the Eock Pipit may rear two 

 broods in the season ; but so far as my observations go, this 

 is the exception and not the rule. 



When the young are safe upon the wing and the moulting 

 season is almost over, the Eock Pipits gather into little 

 parties, and as the season advances these become flocks often 

 of considerable size. The Eock Pipits then leave many of 

 the more northern localities and visit the salt-marshes on the 

 low-lying coasts. Numbers of these birds come over the sea 

 from lands where the winters are too severe for them to find 

 food and shelter. I have seen Meadow Pipits and Snow 

 Buntings mix with flocks of this bird on the wild weedy 

 " saltings " and low scrub-clothed sand dunes in the Wash. 

 They are much shyer than in spring and summer, and the 

 least alarm sends the whole flock hurrying off in irregular 

 order, sometimes looking as if they were entirely at the 

 mercy of the wintery gale. 



