THE PIPITS 271 



here and there over the country, and, mingling with similar armies 

 of skylarks (by whom they are not rejected), seem, like them, to show 

 a preference for the more agricultural districts. Place them as we 

 may, the two now are inseparable. They feed, fly, walk, run together, 

 together leave the country, and together, in winter, return to it. 1 

 This is much, and to it can be added that they sometimes perch 

 together, too on trees, on bushes, even on telegraph-wires ; at least 

 the skylark will do this sometimes, and will any ornithologist of 

 standing go so far as to assert that the meadow-pipit never will ? No, 

 surely, he will be too wary, for greater even than the dangers which 

 lurk about, to destroy, in one short sentence, the long and carefully 

 hoarded reputation for sobriety of statement, are those which attend 

 committal to even the most sober-seeming negative. 



Bailly tells us that the "farlouses " enter Savoy in numerous 

 phalanxes, following one another, and that some of these may be as 

 much as 60 to 80 metres in length, by 10 to 12 in breadth a metre 

 being some three inches more than a yard. They do not fly closely, 

 but " eparpilles dans Pair" and " s'entr' appellent d tout instant." Should 

 any bird amongst the advanced columns seek the ground, the rest 

 follow, scattering themselves over the face of the country, so that a 

 space of from 20 to 25 ares 2 will sometimes be covered by them. 3 In 

 England large flocks of meadow-pipits may be seen, in spring and 

 autumn, arriving upon or leaving our shores. 4 Such birds as stay 

 with us, even through the most severe winters, frequent moist 

 meadows and similar localities, as long as the ground remains soft. 

 When frozen, they seek for sheep-folds, 5 and are only too glad to find 

 them, as may be inferred from the fact that like Motacilla alba 

 Ittgubris, who also resorts there, and whose name might seem to be a 

 contradiction in terms they are then frequently observed to wag 

 their tails. For the Pipits, belonging as they do to the Motatillince, 



1 Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, iii. 



- An are = 119i square yards. 3 Omithologie de la Savoie, iii. p. 356. 



4 D'Urban, Birds of Devon; Borrer, Birds of Sussex. 



5 O. V. Aplin, Birds of Oxfordshire. 



