126 SPRING. 



the winter is colder in the same latitude. The greater 

 cold prevents the birds that leave us in the autumn 

 from pursuing an eastward course, though they often 

 send a few stray continental birds to the south-east of 

 England. 



Woodlarks generally congregate in the cold months, 

 though pairs are found showing an attachment to each 

 other, and a comparative disregard for the flock, even 

 then. Grounds in which there are clods and stones are 

 the favourite haunts of the woodlarks when they as- 

 semble ; their assemblies are small compared with those 

 of the skylarks ; and when raised, they wheel about in 

 low circles, and alight again in the same place. They 

 very seldom mix with other birds ; but it has been 

 noticed that after they alight, if the day is very warm 

 and sunny, one will leave the flock, whirl upward and 

 sing for a few minutes, and then rejoin his companions. 

 At other seasons, it will remain upon the wing and 

 sing for more than an hour at a time. 



The other lark, which " pitches its tent in the wil- 

 derness," is, in reality, no lark at all. It is one of 



THE PIPITS, 



though which one, or whether in all situations the same 

 one, is not even yet very clearly made out. 



The pipits were for a long time classed with the 

 larks, though except in building their nests upon the 

 ground, and in the great elongation of the hind claw 

 in some of the species, they have little affinity with the 

 larks. In general they are smaller, their colours incline 

 to grten, their notes, though sweet, are few, and by no 

 means powerful, and their food at all times is insects 



