432 PERCHING BIRDS. 



off to great advantage by the white eyestripe, the under-parts being pure yellow. 

 The female has the crown of the head greenish brown instead of blue, and the 

 eyestripe is less pure ; the under-parts being of a duller yellow. A figure of this 

 bird is given on the left side of the woodcut on p. 431. 



The European wagtails are replaced as familiar birds in South 

 Africa by several allied species, of which the best known is the 

 Cape wagtail (M. capensis). Frequenting the crowded cities no less than the 

 outlying farmhouses, this wagtail is everywhere protected, in recognition of its 

 charming ways. Like their European cousins, these birds consort much with 

 cattle, for the sake of the small flies found about those animals ; and they also 

 frequent the sea-beach to procure the flies bred in the putrefying seaweed. The 

 nest is generally constructed in the side of a bank, or a crevice of a stone wall ; 

 it is cup-shaped and constructed of dry grass lined with cows' hair and fur. Some- 

 times it is built under some projecting stone or overhanging root on the bank of a 

 stream. The eggs are brownish cream -colour, freckled with brown. The Cape 

 wagtail has the dipping flight peculiar to the genus, and like other wagtails is fond 

 of seeking its food on the margins of muddy streams; and it has a pretty 

 song, which however is seldom uttered. Sometimes it is seen in flocks, especially 

 when the birds are gathering to roost in some favourite tree ; at other times it 

 lives chiefly in pairs, preying upon insects, which it takes both upon the ground 

 and on the wing. The adult male has the head and hind-neck ashy grey, the 

 eyestripe, cheeks, and throat white, the upper-parts brown, washed with olive, the 

 tail-feathers blackish brown, with the exception of the outer feathers which are 

 chiefly white : a black crescentic band crosses the neck, and the breast and under- 

 parts are yellowish white, and the sides of the body brown. 



The pipits of the genus Anthus form a large group of plain- 

 coloured birds, characterised by the possession of a slender bill very 

 slightly notched at the tip. The legs are proportionately slender and generally 

 adapted for terrestrial p] igression : the wings are moderate in length, but the tail is 

 comparatively short, and often slightly forked. Unlike the larks, the pipits have 

 the nostrils unprotected by feathers; but in certain species the first toe is much 

 elongated. Practically cosmopolitan in their distribution, pipits are represented in 

 all parts of the world except the islands of the South Pacific ; they are, however, 

 really an Old World race, since only two, out of a total of some forty known species, 

 are inhabitants of North America. 



Even in Northern Europe, the tree-pipit (A. arboreus) is a fairly 

 well-known bird, but its favourite haunts are the mild climate of the 

 British Isles and Central Europe : and it shuns high and barren regions, preferring 

 the shelter of well-timbered valleys and the undulating hollows of English parks. 

 All the pipits are quarrelsome and fond of fighting individuals of their own kind : 

 and on one occasion we observed a tree-pipit chase another of the same species 

 against the side of an hotel in Switzerland, the pursuer following up the chase 

 with such energy that he was unable to check his course, and, dashing against the 

 window, dropped stunned on the ground. Another time a tree-pipit chose to take 

 up his abode in a small garden which was also a favourite hunting-ground of a 

 robin, and although the fight was sharp the robin was eventually vanquished. 



