PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 231 



13-14 days, while the usual breeding time is during the latter weeks of May and 

 early in June. Incubation is performed by the hen alone, so far as known. 

 [F. c. R. j.] 



5. Food. Consists principally of insects, including both economically in- 

 jurious and beneficial species ; small seeds are also taken. The young are fed 

 by both parents on insects, including the larvae of many injurious moths 

 (W. Farren). [A. L. T.] 



6. Song Period. From its arrival to the middle of July (F. A. Chennel, 

 Zoologist, 1851, p. 3111 ; C. and H. Alexander, British Birds, i. p. 371). [F. B. K.] 



MEADOW- PI PIT [Anihus pratensis, Linnaeus. Tit-, ground-, meadow-, 

 or peat-lark, ling-bird, moor-titling, moor-peep, moss-cheeper, heather- 

 lintie. French, pipi des pres ; German, Wiesenpieper ; Italian, pispola]. 



1. Description. Resembles both the tree-pipit and the red-throated pipit. 

 It may be distinguished from the first-named by the fact that the claw of the hind- 

 toe is longer than the toe itself, and the fact that the four outermost primaries 

 are of equal length. From the red-throated pipit it differs in having the feathers 

 of the rump and upper tail-coverts of a uniform hue, or the centres of these feathers 

 only slightly darker than the rest. (PL 29.) The sexes are indistinguishable. 

 Length 5f in. [143 mm.]. The upper surface is of an olive-brown hue relieved 

 by dark striations, except in the rump, which is uniformly olive-brown. There 

 is a more or less well-marked superciliary streak of buff, while the median wing- 

 coverts are broadly margined with dull white, the major coverts with pale brown. 

 The outermost tail feather is for the most part white, fading into a pale smoky- 

 brown along the outer web : the succeeding penultimate feather, with a wedge- 

 shaped spot of white at the top of the inner web. The throat, breast, and flanks 

 are of a tawny buff, relieved by striations which run down on either side of the 

 neck from the base of the beak on to the fore-breast and along the flanks, leaving 

 the throat and lower breast of a uniform buff hue. The abdomen is of a dull 

 white, and also unstriated. After the autumn moult the plumage is of a richer 

 buff hue below, and greener above. Fledglings differ from the adults only in being 

 duller, and in having the striations heavier and less sharply defined, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Iceland, the Faeroes, the British Isles, Continental 

 Europe, except Spain and Portugal and the Balkan Peninsula. Rare in South 

 Italy, and absent from the Mediterranean islands, but found in West Siberia and 

 Turkestan. In the British Isles it is general on moor- and marsh-lands. [F. c. R. j.] 



