72 BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE BELOW. 



its high, erratic flight, its chirping call and twittering 

 song, it closely resembles the Common Linnet ; but it 

 lacks the crimson cap and breast which adorn the 

 Linnet in summer, and may at all times be dis- 

 tinguished from that bird by its yellow bill and 

 blackish feet, the bill of the Common Linnet being 

 leaden-hued, and its feet brown. 



LESSER REDPOLL 4| inches. A slighter bird, with 

 crimson crown and black chin, and (in summer) rosy 

 breast and rump. An eccentric clamberer when feeding 

 in trees. 



PIPITS 5| to 6J inches. Although of a similarly streaked 

 brown above and streaked white below, frequenting 

 open situations, banding together and calling to one 

 another on the wing, and using a similarly high, erratic 

 flight, the Pipits may be distinguished by their longer, 

 sharper bills, a central black spot on the chest, their 

 call-note, ' Wheet ! wheet ! wheet ! ' and their walking 

 gait, the Twite being a hopping bird. 



NOTE TO 'BIRDS BROWN ABOVE AND WHITE 

 BELOW.' 



PLOVER AND SNIPE KINDS. All birds of the foregoing 

 section are such as perch on branches and hop when on the ground. 

 There is, however, a large class of birds, very distinctly 'brown 

 above and white below,' which never perch, save by the rarest 

 exception, and never hop. They are birds of the Snipe and Plover 

 kind, all ground-birds, chiefly of the water-side, whether it be 

 on marsh land, by the sea, or beside inland waters. All are pre- 

 eminently running birds, using one foot after the other, and moving 

 with a quick, gliding motion. As such, they have been relegated 

 to separate sections headed ' SHORTER-BILLED RUNNING BIRDS ' 

 and ' LONG- BILLED RUNNING BIRDS.' 



SAND-MARTIN. The smallest of the Swallow kind, mouse- 

 brown above and white below, with brown band across the chest. 

 Described under ' SWALLOW AND SWALLOW-LIKE BIRDS.' 



