266 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



habit of not coming down. The red-throated pipit again, though not 

 now considered to be merely a beautiful variety of Pratensis, acts, in 

 this particular, as if it were, whilst in the water-pipit, whom we know 

 just a little, but his song, unfortunately, not at all, we have perhaps 

 as lark-like an example as any insomuch that, with equal propriety, 

 one might call a lark pipit-like, in this respect. 



Warde Fowler, in an eloquent passage of his well - known 

 A Year with the Birds, speaks of " a song resounding far and 

 near, a song given high in air, and often by an invisible singer. 

 But he is never many minutes together on the wing, and will 

 soon descend to perch on some prominent object, the very top 

 twig of a pine, or a bit of rock amid the Alpine roses. This 

 blithe spirit of the flowery pastures is the water-pipit." The song of 

 the tawny-pipit, also, though extremely poor, is delivered after the 

 family manner, as, in all probability, is that of Richard's pipit, but of 

 the performance of this Asiatic species I have not been able to find 

 any account. 



The principle of display and song being employed in conjunction, 

 by the male bird, during the nuptial season, seems well illustrated by 

 the above facts, for it is of little force to contrast the sober colouring 

 of a bird with its powers of vocal utterance, if, through special aerial 

 performances, it can make itself pleasing to the eye, as well. Flight, 

 in that case, takes the place of adornment, so that we have, instead of 

 the supposed opposition, an essentially similar combination. Nor is 

 beauty of plumage quite wanting, here, even though it hold a secondary 

 place all beauty indeed is relative, and when one form of it is aided 

 by another, much may sometimes be made out of little. But indeed 

 our little pipits, homely as their garb may be, are of a soft, greyish 

 white under the wings, and this is displayed in a very pleasing 

 manner, as the bird sinks, with them raised, through the air. Looking 

 up, as, if one looks at all, one must do, this, with the speckled breast 

 and swelled throat which is red, in the case of one species is just 

 the part one sees, and the effect, in the sunlight a great magician in 



