The Tree Pipit does not stray far from its nesting haunts, the male 

 generally choosing some perch on the top of a tall tree where he may be seen 

 during the entire breeding season ; the pair will return year after year for several 

 successive seasons, to the same situation from which it seems probable that 

 the bird pairs for life. 



The Tree Pipit is very cautious in approaching its nest, generally dropping 

 down on to the ground at some little distance from it and threading her 

 way to it among the long grass. She sits very closely, and is not easily 

 flushed when once incubation has commenced. At this time the male is 

 rarely far from the nest and usually keeps to his favourite tree, every now 

 and then indulging in one of his song-flights or collecting food and taking it 

 to his sitting mate. The nest is always built upon the ground, among the 

 grass or young corn, often on a bank in a wood among the grass, ferns, 

 wood-sorrel and wild hyacinths, sometimes just beside a path or disused cart- 

 road through a wood, or in a hay-field right out in the open under a tuft of 

 grass. It is usually built in a little hollow, scraped out by the birds, and is 

 made of dead grass, moss and grass roots, and lined with fine grass and 

 horsehair. The nest is usually rather deep and beautifully rounded, and is 

 generally very cunningly concealed. 



From four to six eggs are laid, usually about the middle of May ; they 

 are subject to great variation in colour, though the eggs in a clutch are 

 generally pretty nearly alike. Each bird, apparently, has its peculiarity in 

 colouring, and the same type of eggs is generally found in the same situa- 

 tion year after year. There are two types, one, in which the spots are very 

 small and finely peppered over the entire surface of the egg, often almost 

 hiding the ground colour, the other, in which blotches or streaks take the 

 place of the spots, and are usually principally confined to the larger end of the 

 egg, leaving the ground colour visible at the smaller end. The ground colour 

 may be pinkish-white or any shade of rich red-brown, and in the greenish 

 type olive-brown or dark-brown, sometimes greenish-blue, the spots on the 

 reddish type being dark red-brown and on the greenish variety olive-brown or 

 very dark brown. The darker-coloured eggs are generally found in woods 

 or under the shelter of trees or bushes, and the lighter, more richly coloured 

 ones, in the open fields. They vary in length from '90 to 75 inch, and in 

 breadth from ^65 to '55 inch. 



Two broods are occasionally reared in the year, the young being chiefly fed 

 on small insects, caterpillars and grubs of various kinds. The Tree Pipit leaves 

 its summer quarters on its southward migration about the end of September. 



134 



