THE PIPITS 267 



such matters is almost of a soft, chastened silver, added to all of 

 which there is, of course, the beauty of the flight. Since, then, these 

 performances, besides being melodious to the ear, are full of soft 

 grace and beauty to the eye, the pipits, plain though they are under 

 ordinary circumstances, yet, in the nuptial season, and for nuptial 

 purposes, contrive to make themselves pretty one may even say 

 beautiful birds. 



I am not aware if the tree-, or any other of the pipits, have, as 

 has the skylark, a ground courting action, to the boot of the above- 

 described aerial ones. If so, they may, upon occasion, hop, or at 

 least jump, as, under the requisite stimulus, the last-mentioned 

 species has been observed to do. Otherwise, like the larks, in their 

 general habits, as also like the wagtails, they are walkers and runners 

 only. The point is perhaps an interesting one, for there may be a 

 tendency both in lark and pipit or, at least, in some of the species 

 for the song, thus wedded with aspiring flight, to forget its object, 

 so to speak, and take joy in itself. If, then, ome more prosaic earth- 

 actions, keeping their earth-end in view, had become developed in 

 certain species, either of one or the other family, according to the 

 degree in which the tendency just mentioned had asserted itself, great 

 and inspiriting would be the significance of this. 



A brief description may be here attempted or rather, some brief 

 attempts may be quoted of the actual song of the various species of 

 pipits the what they say, as distinct from how they say it. To 

 commence with the most worthy ; that of the tree-pipit " consists of a 

 number of lovely, high-toned, trilling strophes, very various in char- 

 acter, and following each other so quickly that they all blend into one 

 delightful whole, ending, commonly, with a soft, ' dying fall ' of ' zia, 

 zia, zia ' " (Anglice, tseea). Such is Naumann's l description, to which 

 he adds that it has an astonishing resemblance to the song of the 

 canary, whilst Liebe, 2 after describing it in much the same terms, 

 compares the ending to that of the nightingale. The pleasing and, 



1 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, vol. iii. * Omithologische Schriften, p. 162. 



