44 THE SMALLER BRITISH BIRDS. 



far inland from which it is seldom if over found; making preparations 

 for its nest, flitting hither and thither, gathering up stray fibres 

 of dry grass, marsh and shore plants, moss, and even the finer 

 kinds of sea weeds, of which its nest is made, generally on a low 

 shelf of rock, near the sea, where there is a little vegetation to shield 

 and keep it fast, or it may be in a hole a little way up, by which 

 the tamarisk and sea pink flourish, and the horned poppy puts forth 

 her yellow blossoms to beautify the place. Sometimes the nest is placed 

 on the ground sheltered by a bush, on some slight eminence, always 

 loosely constructed, never far from the sea, in whose fresh breezes the 

 little bird delights. 



The eggs may be four, five, or six in number, of a dingy white, 

 pale yellowish, or grey colour, for they vary much in this respect; 

 they sometimes have a tinge of green, and they are spotted with 

 reddish brown, often so thickly at the larger end as to become 

 confluent, or flowing together, and so taking possession of the whole 

 surface. These eggs are in general rather larger than those of the 

 Meadow Pipit, their average weight being about thirty-six grains. 

 The young are hatched quite early in the spring. If the hen is dis- 

 turbed while sitting, she rises and hovers over the place, uttering a 

 shrill complaining cry, and showing how anxious she is by her 

 restlessness. 



The Rock Pipit is remarkable for the extreme length of the hind 

 claw, which is much curved at the extremity. Like all the Larks and 

 Pipits, it has long slender legs, which lift it well up out of the water, 

 amid which and the sea-weeds on the shore it searches for the marine 

 insects and smaller crustaceous animals on which it chiefly feeds. 



On all the British coasts, as well as on those of Ireland, Scotland, 

 and Wales, it may be found, sometimes in considerable numbers; its 

 flight even in winter seldom extends beyond the marshes contiguous 

 to the sea, so that in inland counties it is little if at all known. The 

 great traveller and naturalist "Waterton, of Walton Hall, found it among 

 the sea-birds at Flamborough Head, where its weak cry must have 

 been drowned amid the clamour of the winds and waves, and of the 

 Auks, Penguins, Gulls, and other ocean screamers which inhabit the 

 precipitous heights and narrow ledges of the rocks that present so bold 

 a front to the rolling waves of the German Ocean. 



Stevenson notices that in Norfolk, although a few of these birds 

 appear ivgularly on their spring and autumn migrations, yet the specimens 

 obtained are extremely rare, owing probably to their specific distinctions 

 being little known; if shot they are likely to be mistaken for the 

 more common species, and thrown away. 



