PIPITS, OR TITLARKS. 37 



where the gorse and ling grow and blossom most freely. In moist 

 boggy places it is not often seen, nor in gardens near to houses, and 

 even cultivated fields and meadows are not much frequented by it, 

 hence its scientific and common names, AntTius a small bird, pratensis 

 of meadows, is not quite appropriate. 



Like all the Pipits, as well as the Larks and Wagtails, this bird has 

 a jerky wavering flight; it goes up in a kind of zigzag, and curiously 

 enough, does not begin to sing until it has attained a sufficient altitude, 

 not nearly so great as that reached by the Sky Lark, and has com- 

 menced its descent, in the first part of which the wings have a singulai 

 tremulous motion, but as the bird nears the ground they are spread 

 out motionless to offer resistance to the air, and so break the fall, 

 which would otherwise be too sudden. With a graceful sweep it 

 passes over the spot where the nest is hidden, and the singer, whose 

 strain is a faint reflex of that of the Sky Lark, being neither so loud, 

 sweet, nor varied, alights near to but not directly on, the form of its 

 sitting mate. Quite early in the morning the song may be heard, and 

 when the 'weather is clear and calm, late into the evening. Although 

 generally an aerial singer, it is not entirely so, for it will sometimes 

 give utterance to its joy while on the ground, on a stone, or low bush. 

 Neville Wood, who notes this circumstance, says it has been overlooked 

 by authors, and opines that these ground singers may be young birds, 

 as yet incapable of mounting to any altitude, although they have begun 

 to exercise their vocal powers. 



This Pipit is altogether a ground builder, and by no means a very neat 

 and tidy one. The nest consists of dry grass and other herbage loosely 

 put together, with finer vegetable fibres, and perhaps a little horse- 

 hair for a lining. It may be found mostly in open fields or commons, 

 or ou some wild breezy spot, over the hills and far away from human 

 habitation, in a thick tuft of grass, amid purple heath, or golden- 

 blossomed gorse, or beneath the shelter of a stunted thorn or other 

 low bush. The eggs, from four to six in number, are of a light reddish 

 brown colour, sometimes with a grey or blue tint, mottled and spotted 

 with darker brown; they are generally laid about the middle of April, 

 and the young are ready to fly by the end of May. By the middle 

 of July there is sometimes a second brood. 



It is into the nest of the Meadow Pipit that the Cuckoo most fre- 

 quently drops its egg, "a very apple of discord," as Mr. Stevenson 

 observes, in his " Birds of Norfolk/' in which county this species is 

 very plentiful, where it breeds close by the grazing lands near the 

 marsh dykes that drain the soil. " I know of few things," continues 

 our author, "raoro ridiculous than the great baby Cuckoo helplessly 



