114 



THE NATURE BOOK 



while. So constant is this habit with 

 him. that if the observer does not ap- 

 proach too near to alarm him the 



PIED WAGTAIL. 



bird may be seen to perform this same 

 evolution twenty times in half an hour, 

 and it is most frequently witnessed during 

 and after a warm May or June shower." 

 This habit will at once distinguish him 

 from the somewhat smaller Meadow and 

 somewhat larger Rock Pipit. All three 

 are sombre clad, genteel, Sparrow-hke 

 birds. The general brown plumage of 

 the Rock Pipit is relieved by a shade 

 of olive, and the breast spots are more 

 conspicuous than those of the Meadow 



TREE PIPIT ON NEST. 



species nest on the ground, and their alter- 

 native title of Titlarks proclaims their 

 affinity and proportion in size to the true 

 Larks — a family of birds with which they 

 share a beautiful adaptation of footgear, 

 in that in those species which frequent 

 grass land, and spend most of their time 

 on the ground, the hind claw is greatly 

 prolonged, enabling them to walk with 

 ease upon a dense carpet of vegetation ; 

 whilst in the Tree Pipit the hind claw 

 is curved, to suit its arboreal propensities, 

 though not to so great an extent as is the 

 case with the Rock Pipit. The latter 

 bird has two dull-white alar bars, and 

 the outer feathers do not show distinctly 



Pipit, and the similarity of the Tree Vi\nt 

 to a diminutive and alert Song Thrush 

 has frequently struck me. All three 



MEADOW PIPIT. 



white in flight, as is to some extent the 

 case with the Tree Pipit, but most con- 

 spicuously in the Meadow Pipit. Some 

 of these minor differences in such small 

 birds may be difficult to discern whilst 

 the subjects are at large, but field-glasses 

 are so easily available and so very useful, 

 that no student of wild-life should travel 

 without them. 



With the Pipits we have reached the 

 end of the first tribe of the Passerine 

 — Sparrow-hke, or perching birds, to 

 which Linnaeus gave the name of DerHi- 

 rostrcs, because they have the upper 

 mandible more or less distinctly notched 

 on each side. With the closely allied 

 I, arks, we commence the second Passerine 

 tribe of Conirostrcs, or hard-billed birds, 

 their stronger and more cone-shaped 

 mandibles larking the tooth-like beak 



