46 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS A.KD NESTS. 



81. RAY'S WAGTAIL. (Motacillaflava). 



Yellow Wagtail, Cow-bird. A summer visitor, and, of course, 

 making its nest with us. It builds on the ground, in cornfields 

 or fallows ; sometimes on a stump of a tree level with the 

 ground, or on a bank of earth overhanging water, or in a hole in a 

 wall in the same vicinity. The said nest is made of moss, roots, 

 dry grass, and lined with the same, only finer, and a little hair. 

 Four to six eggs are laid, which Mr. Yarrell says, " are not un- 

 like those of the Sedge-warbler, only rather larger ; whitish in 

 colour, mottled nearly all over with yellow-brown and ash- 

 brown." 



VIII. 

 82. TREE PIPIT. (Antlms arboreus). 



Pipit Lark, Field Titling, Field Lark, Tree Lark, Grasshopper 

 Lark. No long time elapses after the spring arrival of the Tree 

 Pipit before he makes his presence observable by indulging in 

 his peculiar mode of recommending his song, not unpleasant in 

 itself, to our notice. Seated on the topmost twig of a tree or 

 high bush he sings awhile, and then up he goes with fluttering 

 wing, singing all the while, and also while descending from his 

 greatest height on outstretched wing to the twig he started 

 from. The nest is always on the ground, and not far from a 

 hedge, or under a low bush, and is found also in woods or 

 nurseries not far from the edge of a drive or glade, It is made 

 of moss and fibres and grass, lined with finer grass and a little 

 hair. The eggs vary inconceivably in tint and marks, and 

 entirely baffle description. Some are purple-red, others yellowish- 

 white in ground, clouded and spotted almost all over with different 

 shades of greyish brown. Fig. 22, 23, plate III. 



83. MEADOW PIPIT. (Antfas pratensis). 



Titlark, Pipit Lark, Meadow Titling, Moor Tit or Titling, 

 lleather-lintie, Moss-cheeper, Lingbird,^Meadow Lark. A very 

 common bird here, both in the enclosed lands and especially on 

 the moors. It is amusing to observe how they sometimes wind 

 their way among the ling, instead of flying from the place at 

 which they have alighted. Its nest is always on the ground, 

 sometimes in the middle of a grass or corn-field, sometimes 

 nearer the hedge, but always so placed as to be very well if not 

 very closely concealed. 6ne I found accidentally on the moor 

 was in the side of a cavity left by the extraction of a huge 

 surface block of stone, in a kind of small hollow or recess, and 

 coir, plot oly covered in by earth and ling. In addition (o its five 



