SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 21 



settled, he launches down from his perch in 

 one long curve, returns again, and hovers 

 above and around his softly twittering partner, 

 spreading his beautiful tail out for her to ad- 

 mire. Then he settles, siddles along the wire, 

 gets close to his companion, and bursts out into 

 song mouth, throat, and breast in full play, as 

 if he had a difficulty in expressing his heartfelt 

 joy at their successful passage. 



In the course of many years I have never 

 seen either nests, eggs, or young quite alike: 

 some eggs vary in the most remarkable degree. 

 Out of ten nests of the tree-pipit, taken in the 

 course of as many years, with their full clutches 

 of eggs (unless I had put the birds off their 

 nests), after watching them day after day, I 

 should not have believed that this collection of 

 nests and eggs belonged to one species, the 

 tree-pipit. But there they are, in one box, 

 duly ticketed with the locality and date of each. 

 All the eggs are different in tint and markings, 

 and all the nests were made out of different 

 materials. This is easily accounted for. Birds 

 build with what they can get, and eat what they 

 can get, each one in its own chosen district. 

 The tree-pipits that nest in the rich grass parks 

 belonging to large estates have very different 



