TREE-PIPIT. 221 



country, and is common near houses and in parks. Soon after its arrival 

 in its breeding-haunts the cock bird devotes the greater part of his time to 

 his charming and characteristic song. It is a very beautiful sight in early 

 spring to watch the Tree-Pipit essaying his short flight on his arrival from 

 a warmer climate. He springs up from the topmost twig of some branch, 

 and mounts nearly perpendicularly into the air, warbling his pretty song. 

 He soon begins to hover in the air, and, as if fatigued by his recent 

 journey, almost immediately descends, with tail and wings expanded like a 

 parachute, and at last finishes his song on the ground, in a tree, or on a 

 wall. His downward course is in a semi-spiral curve, and be alights where 

 the curve of his flight would make a tangent to the surface of the ground. 

 All this time he has been singing melodiously, the clear, rich, joyous notes 

 following each other in rapid succession until, as he reaches his perch, he 

 concludes his song with several long-drawn notes, expressive of almost 

 impatient anxiety. These plaintive notes may be expressed by tsee-a, 

 tsee-a, tsee-a. If the season be not far advanced he will often glide from 

 one tree to another, singing as he goes ; and thus he continues soaring 

 and warbling the whole day through, occasionally visiting the ground for 

 food or fluttering after a passing insect like a Flycatcher. The Tree-Pipit 

 often warbles on his perch ; but Dixon has noticed that he does not utter 

 the long-drawn concluding notes unless in the air. The Tree-Pipit con- 

 tinues his song until the moulting-season commences, in the middle of 

 July ; it may be heard at all hours of the day, and sounds particularly 

 charming after a summer shower. Its call-note bears some resemblance 

 to that of the Greenfinch, and the alarm-note is a sharp and oft-repeated 

 tick, tick. 



When once the Tree- Pipit has paired, which it does usually by the end 

 of April, it rarely strays far from its haunt all the summer. It generally 

 selects some tree as a starting-place for its song-flights, and may be seen 

 there during the whole breeding-season. It is not improbable that this 

 bird pairs for life ; and in some localities a pair of these birds will be found 

 every season for years in succession, the same favourite tree being returned 

 to with unfailing certainty. The nest is always built on the ground, 

 generally amongst herbage, sometimes on a bank in a wood, and often in 

 the grass or corn-fields, fifty yards or more from the hedge. Sometimes 

 a site is selected on a bluebell-covered bank in a secluded lane, or in a little- 

 used cart-road, or beside a " drive " in a wood. The nest is usually made 

 in a little hole, often excavated by the parent birds, and is constructed of 

 dry grass, moss, a few rootlets or a tuft or two of twitch, and is lined with 

 finer grass and a little horsehair. Some nests are much more elaborately 

 made than others, and sometimes dry grass forms the whole structure. It 

 is moderately deep and well rounded, and does not differ much in general 

 appearance from the nest of the Meadow-Pipit. 



