WA GTAILS CREEPERS. 



365 



Fig. 103. THE PIED WAGTAIL (Motacilla 

 lugubris). 



The pipits are generally birds of sombre brown coloration, more like that 

 of the larks. They build their nests on the ground, generally under some 

 sheltered portion of a bank. The true 

 pipits (Anthus) are thirty-five in number, 

 and are found in almost every part of 

 the world. The common meadow pipit 

 (Anthus pratensis) is one well-known 

 species, and the tree-pipit (A. trivialis) 

 is another. The eggs of these two pipits 

 are much more richly coloured than 

 those of wagtails, and are often of a 

 pinkish-red or purplish colour, with 

 darker spots and blotches. The brightest 

 of the pipits are the members of the 

 African genera Macronyx and Tmetothy- 

 lacus, the species of Macronyx having 

 yellow breasts, while one species, M. amelice, has a beautiful pink 

 breast. 



The wagtails arc divisible into two sections, the "water" wagtails and 

 the " field " wagtails, the latter being less frequenters of the river banks than 

 of the inland pastures. The most thoroughly river-haunting -species in our 

 own islands is the grey wagtail (Motacilla melanope\ while the pied wagtail 

 (M. lugubris) is a typical ' ' water "-wagtail, just as Ray's wagtail (M. campestris) 

 is a typical ** field "-wagtail. All these little birds, as well as the pipits, feed 

 on insects, which they catch on the wing or on the ground, and they all have 

 a graceful mode of running and walking, keeping up the whole time a con- 

 stant up-and-down waving of the tail. 



The Mniotiltidce embrace a number of small warblers, entirely confined 

 to the American region, where they fulfil the same functions as our own 

 warblers (SylviicUe) of the Eastern Hemisphere, feeding on 

 insects. They differ, however, from the Sylviidce in having 

 nine primaries, nor is there any proof that the Mniotiltidce 

 have a double moult, in autumn and again in spring, like the 

 warblers of the Old World. The principal genera of the 

 Mniotiltidce are Dendrceca and Parula, both of which are 



also denizens of South America. Some genera, like 

 Mniotilta, appear to have an affinity with the 

 creepers, while the genera Basileuterus, Setophaga, 

 Myiodioctes, etc., have well- developed rictal bristles, 

 and are like flycatchers in their external appear- 



The American 



Warblers. 



Family 



Mniotiltidce. 



A typical creeper is easily distinguished from the 

 other passerine birds by its stiffened tail-feathers, 

 which resemble those of a woodpecker, 

 and are of the same use to the birds The Creepers. 

 in supporting themselves during their Family 

 climb up an upright trunk. Unlike Certhiidce. 

 the woodpeckers, which only ascend 

 the trunk, the tree-creepers often move along a 

 bough horizontally. They have a long and curved 

 bill, different from the conical bill of the tits, which 

 they resemble in nesting habits and in the colour of the eggs, which 



Fig. 104. THE TREE- 

 CREEPER 

 (Certhia familiaris). 



