274 WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



numerous companies, which, as the heat becomes gradually greater, 

 disperse themselves over moist pastures and shady retreats 



" Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green." 



If intruded upon by the wretched, clumsy being, man, they fly 

 up, one after another, " en s'avertissant par leurs cm : /It, /It, /it, fit, 

 prononces dune voix forte et grave" * Such scenes cannot, unfortunately, 

 be witnessed in England, where the species, though (like the ibis and 

 griffon vulture) upon the British list, comes to us, to be shot, very 

 rarely. The tawny-bunting is a little more reckless, since it would 

 appear to be " a regular autumn visitor in small numbers " to some 

 parts of the south coast. Luckily, however, its resemblance to the 

 meadow-pipit protects it in some measure, besides that it is also very 

 shy. It does not, therefore, to so great a degree as in some other and 

 more lamentable cases, fall a victim to the bird-collector or his 

 somewhat less degraded brother, the bird-catcher. 



Nothing, as far as I am aware that is to say, nothing very salient 

 has been observed in regard to the roosting habits of our pipits, 

 which may perhaps be explained by the fact that, unlike the wagtails, 

 who pass the night, crowded together, amidst shrubbery of some 

 height, and not of a very concealing kind as, for instance, in a reed- 

 bed they make the earth their dormitory, on whose broad bosom their 

 numbers, even when observable, lose such irnposingness as they might 

 otherwise possess. This, as has been seen, is great, during the more 

 sombre months of the year, in the case of the meadow-pipit alone, as 

 far as our islands are concerned, whilst, even in his case, such flights, 

 unless on the sea-coast, are rarely, if ever, to be witnessed by us, as 

 are common on the Continent of Europe. Yet, how large soever such 

 a gathering might be, it would disappear, to all intents and purposes, 

 upon reaching the ground, clothed, as this is, with its varying 

 chevaux de frise, and this, in any study of the aforesaid habits, w r ould 

 tend to increase a difficulty which must always, in some degree, exist 



1 Ornithologie de la Savoie, iii. p. 351. 



