THE TAWNY PIPIT. 



flushed they would often fly for a little distance in a very straightforward manner 

 (not undulating, as their usual flight is) and perch on a little tuft of higher vege- 

 tation, or on a boulder, or even a paling. Many of the birds were on the road, 

 where you could witness their actions very closely as they ran up and down like 

 a Wagtail, often giving their tail a sharp jerk, accompanied by a flicking movement 

 of the wings. They seemed to especially prefer a large unenclosed plain of rough 

 land on which no crop was sown, what we should call summer fallow in England. 

 Here I repeatedly saw the birds soar into the air for a little way and sing their 

 loud but simple song, which put me in mind of the Sky-Lark's notes, although 

 not so rich or so sweet. It does not soar so high as the Tree- Pipit, and seems 

 anxious to get to the ground again. When alarmed by the report of a gun, the 

 birds close at hand would generally rise for some distance into the air and betake 

 themselves to safer quarters in a drooping flight, uttering a short whit or yhit as 

 they went." * 



Col. L,. H. Irby, speaking of Tawny Pipits on the Spanish side of the Straits 

 of Gibraltar, says : " We never met with them on low ground, and there is no 

 doubt they breed high up on the sierras." 



The Tawny Pipit is a late breeder, building its nest towards the end of May 

 under a shrub, amongst growing crops, beneath a tuft of rank herbage, or under 

 the shelter of a stone or clod of earth. The materials of the nest consist of dry 

 grass, bents, and roots, with a lining of horsehair : the eggs number from five to 

 six, greyish-, or creamy- white, streaked or spotted somewhat heavily with dark- 

 grey and purplish-, or ruddish-brown. 



The food consists principally, if not entirely, of insects and their larvae, and 

 doubtless of spiders and small centipedes, as is the general habit of insectivorous 

 birds. 



I should not anticipate that much satisfaction would be obtained from keeping 

 the Tawny Pipit either in cage or aviary, unless its natural tameness induced it 

 to sing : my Titlarks, although by no means unusually wild, never once sang in 

 confinement ; yet they were in an aviary 1 6 feet long : their only charm therefore 

 consisted in their graceful actions, both on the ground and when flying ; but 

 neither in colouring or grace can they at all compare with Wagtails. 



* O. V. Aplin (Zoologist, 1892, p. 14) says: "Alarm-note chit, chit; song short, but with a few rather 

 good notes." 



VOL. I. 2 I, 



