194 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



run upon the earth, their tails spring up and down in the same manner ; but in 

 their food they more nearly approach the Larks inasmuch as they not only eat 

 insects and their larvae, spiders, centipedes, and small worms, but also a good deal 

 of seed, more especially of cereals : in aviaries they often husk and swallow their 

 share of canary-seed. Whether the Tree-Pipit is as combative in confinement as 

 his relative the Titlark I do not know, because I have had no personal experience 

 of the present species as an aviary pet ; but, from what I know of the Meadow 

 Pipit, I should recommend that only one example be admitted into a mixed aviary, 

 otherwise I suspect that there would be war to the death. 



Lord Lilford, speaking of this bird in Northamptonshire, says : " It arrives 

 with us generally in the second or third week of April, and the male bird soon 

 makes his presence known by his loud song, which has some resemblance to both 

 that of the Canary and the Skylark; he also attracts attention by his common 

 habit of soaring from a tree to a moderate height, and descending slowly, singing 

 his best, with tail outspread and legs hanging, to the perch from which he started, 

 or another close by it, without coining to the ground : this habit has, in some 

 places, gained him the name of " Woodlark"; but I need hardly say that the true 

 Wood-lark (Alauda arborea) is a very distinct bird, which differs from the present 

 species in many essential particulars, and whose song is in every way far superior 

 to that of the Tree-Pipit." 



This note of Lord Lilford's is of considerable interest, as I am satisfied that, 

 in many parts of England, the Tree- Pipit is confounded with the Woodlark ; though 

 more particularly by people born and bred in the country ; the most difficult of all 

 to convince of their errors. 



Gatke says that the Tree- Pipit is one of the few birds which have attempted 

 to breed in Heligoland ; " unfortunately the attempt was unsuccessful, for the nest 

 with four eggs of the type with brown spots like burnt marks, was destroyed by 

 cats ; it had been placed against a large tuft of grass in the middle of a large 

 hedged-in grass-plot, about a hundred paces in diameter, which adjoins my garden, 

 and was protected against every possible disturbance by human hand." 



