_____ CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 15 



Hawks, and the drumming of the Snipes, is perfectly 

 deafening, and would never be credited by those who 

 have not heard it. By about 11 p.m. the greater 

 part of the performers are quiet, but the slightest 

 sound, even the slushing of a large pike on the look- 

 out for his supper, is enough to make them break out 

 again in full chorus. 



During cold and stormy weather they remain re- 

 markably silent, hardly a sound, except the occasional 

 scream of a Coot or Moorhen, being heard through 

 the swamps, to break the monotony of the sighing of 

 the wind through the reed-beds and the splash of the 

 rain in the open water. 



The old birds, with their young, were obtained on 

 Heigham Sounds, in Norfolk, in June, 1871. 



MEADOW PIPIT. 



Case 17. 



This is one of the commonest of our British birds. 

 Although several of these Titlarks remain with us 

 through the winter, their numbers are considerably 

 augmented by fresh arrivals in the spring. Any still 

 foggy morning, from the middle of March till well on 

 m April, they may be noticed landing on the south 

 coast, singly and in small parties, from daybreak till 

 nine or ten o'clock. For a day or two they may be 

 observed in numbers about the banks of streams and 

 salt-water pools near the sea beach; but with a change 

 of weather, they soon proceed inland, and scatter them- 

 selves over the country. 



About October there seems to be a general move- 

 ment of these birds along the south coast, their line of 



