THE MEADOW PIPIT. 127 



shore are the favourite haunts of the Pipits. In 

 such situations, except in very hard weather, 

 they find abundance of food, consisting chiefly 

 of insect larvae, small beetles, flies, seeds, and 

 minute univalve mollusca. I have almost in- 

 variably found, in addition, that the stomachs 

 contain little particles of grit or brick, swallowed 

 no doubt to assist in triturating the food. 



The Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) is the 

 smallest as well as the commonest species to be 

 met with, and is generally dispersed throughout 

 the British Islands, including Orkney and Shet- 

 land. It is by no means confined to the plains 

 or open country, but is frequently to be met 

 with on mountain sides, sometimes at a con- 

 siderable elevation. Tourists and sportsmen 

 must doubtless have remarked this when climb- 

 ing the Scotch and Irish mountains. The late 

 Mr. Wheelwright, in Lapland, found it " very 

 high up on the fells ;" Professor Salvadori re- 

 marked it on the Apennines; and Messrs. Elwes 

 and Buckley include it in their list of the birds 

 of Turkey as frequenting the mountains. 



