PIPIT. INSESSORES. ANTHUS. 261 



as the Pipit Lark, considered by some authors as a distinct 

 species. MONTAGU, in the first volume of his Ornithological 

 Dictionary, describes it as such under the above title ; but 

 afterwards, in his Appendix to the Supplement, upon more 

 mature investigation, corrects himself, and asserts his con- 

 viction of their identity. I have omitted no opportunity of 

 becoming satisfied on this head, having examined specimens 

 at all seasons of the year, and am thoroughly persuaded that 

 the supposed species described as the Pipit Lark, is in reality 

 no more than the Common Pipit ( Tit-Lark of authors) in its 

 renewed or winter plumage. Its usual flight is by short and 

 interrupted jerks ; but in the breeding season it differs, the 

 bird then rising by a tremulous and rapid motion of the 

 wings to a considerable height in the air, and commencing 

 its song when at the greatest elevation, descending afterwards 

 with motionless wing and expanded tail, in a sloping (some- 

 times almost perpendicular) direction to the earth, or to the 

 top of some bush. It makes its nest on the ground, under Nest, &c. 

 the shelter of a tuft of herbage, forming it of dry grass, 

 interwoven with the seed-stalks of plants, and lined with 

 finer grasses, or with hair. The eggs are five or six in num- 

 ber, varying in colour, but the prevailing tint a pale brown, 

 thickly covered with brownish purple-red spots and specks. 

 Like the Wagtails, it runs with celerity, and feeds upon flies, Food- 

 worms, and other insects. Its common note-call is a short 

 chirp, resembling the word sneek frequently repeated. In 

 Northumberland, I have observed that the Cuckoo almost 

 invariably deposits her egg in the nest of this bird, scarcely 

 a year elapsing without instances of this fact falling under 

 my observation. This is perhaps the result of locality, being 

 on the border of the open heathy country, where the present 

 species is abundant, and where the Cuckoos, during their 

 cursory residence, chiefly resort, attracted, in all probability, 

 by the plentiful supply of lepidopterous larvae to be found 

 in such situations. 



