268 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



to my own ear, lark-like production of the meadow-pipit is a weaker 

 edition of the foregoing, and has been expressed syllabically by 

 Naumann, after the following fashion, which I believe to be the best 

 rendering extant, viz., "vitge, vitge, vitge, vitge, vitgevitgevitgevitgevitge, 

 zickzickzickzickzickzickzick, yeckyeckyeckyeckyeckyeckyeck teerrrrrrrrr." l The 

 call-note is an "ist, ist, ist," 2 or "ptee, ptee, ptee" 3 according to 

 fancy that of the tree-pipit a "web, seeb, seeb" or "sib, sib, sib"* on 

 the same principle. The rock-pipit sings much after the fashion of 

 the meadow-pipit, but his notes, which have been compared to the 

 tinkling of a tiny bell, by Hudson, 5 are weaker. The call is 

 a "weet,weet" or thereabouts. The water-pipit is confessedly a fine 

 performer, his melody in parts resembling the meadow-pipit's, in other 

 parts the tree-pipit's, whilst the rest is all his own. It is, however, 

 much superior to the song of the first-named bird, though inferior to 

 that of the second. Gif, gees, vitt, vick, veet, vith, veeth, vink, sittr, and zeea 

 are some of the syllables into which its four parts have been rendered. 6 

 Bailly, in describing the song, contents himself with three renderings, 

 viz., flee, fee, and tee, but adds the far more interesting information 

 (which we owe apparently to him and to his personal observation, 

 alone) that in the season of courtship the female pursues the male 

 with a "plee, plee, plee" or "pee, pee, pee" uttered softly, and, as it were, 

 shamefacedly, at some distance, " comme si die craignait de trahir 

 piibliquement sa passion, par sa voix" and that scarcely has the male 

 heard the note than he launches himself almost perpendicularly into 

 the air, singing as he does so, and having attained a height, flies, 

 beating his wings, in search of its author, until, descrying her " from 

 his watch-tower in the skies," he sinks, still singing, on wings now 

 poised and motionless, to alight at her side, and be rewarded for his 

 strains. 7 This is an observation which does one's heart good to read. 

 The female, as we see, calls the male ; but is it any male, or one 

 whose song and flight, perhaps frequently repeated in competition 



1 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, vol. iii. 2 Ibid. 



3 Bailly, Ornithologie de la Savoie, iii. p. 359. 4 Naumann, op. cit. 



6 The Land's End. 8 Naumaim, op. cit. 1 Ornithologie de la Suisse. 



