424 ANTHID^l. 



short time, he will be seen to ascend on quivering wing- 

 about as high again as the tree, then stretching out his 

 wings and expanding his tail, he descends slowly by a 

 half-circle, singing the whole time, to the same branch 

 from which he started, or to the top of the nearest other 

 tree ; and so constant is this habit with him, that if the 

 observer does not approach too near to alarm him, the 

 bird may be seen to perform this same evolution twenty 

 times in half hour, and I have witnessed it most frequently 

 during and after a warm May shower. 



The nest of this bird is placed on the ground in woods 

 and plantations, sometimes sheltered by tufts of herbage 

 on the grassy bank of a wood hedge, or under a low bush ; 

 and Mr. Neville Wood mentions one instance that oc- 

 curred to him, in which the nest of this bird was fixed on 

 the lowest branch of a small thick bush. The nest is 

 formed of moss, with fibrous roots and dried grass, lined 

 with fine bents and a few hairs : the eggs are four or five 

 in number, and exhibit considerable variation in colour in 

 different nests, the most characteristic, however, being of 

 a greyish white ground colour, clouded and spotted with 

 purple brown, or purple red ; the length of the egg about 

 ten lines, by eight lines in diameter. Like the Wagtails 

 and Larks, the Pipits walk and run on the ground : and 

 the food of this species is insects and worms. 



The Tree Pipit is found in all the wooded and culti- 

 vated districts of the southern counties of England ; but 

 is seldom found in any open unenclosed country. It is 

 comparatively rare in Cornwall ; not very numerous in 

 either South or North Wales ; and some doubts are still 

 entertained whether it extends its range to Ireland. North 

 of London it is common in the parts of those counties 

 which are congenial to its habits; Mr. Neville Wood 

 says it is abundant in the sheltered and cultivated parts of 



