140 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



frequents the wet meadows, marshes, and un- 

 frozen springs in the valleys, and about the end 

 of March or beginning of April ascends the 

 mountains, and resorts to the most sterile 

 plateaux, fields, heaths, and stony places in the 

 neighbourhood of water, where it nests on the 

 ground under stones, sometimes in clefts in 

 the rock, but oftener in the grass beneath 

 the bilberry, whortleberry, or some creeping 

 bush. 



In the fall of the year it descends to the 

 warmer valleys and frequents the margins of 

 the rivers, whence it has derived the name of 

 Water Pipit, making its way gradually south- 

 ward as winter approaches. Mr. Saunders has 

 met with it at Malaga in winter ; but apparently 

 it is not common in Spain, and, according to the 

 Rev. A. C. Smith ("Sketch of the Birds of 

 Portugal") still less so in Portugal. Mr. Wright 

 has met with it once in Malta, having shot a 

 specimen there in November, 1860. It crosses 

 the Mediterranean to North Africa. Canon 

 Tristram met with it in Algeria, and Captain 

 Shelley recognised it in Egypt. In the penin- 



