322 THE TITLABK. 



attracting attention by its slow and thoughtful gait, the con- 

 stant motions of its tail, and its attention to its own neatness 

 and cleanliness. 



ADDITIONAL. With us this bird is variously known as the 

 Titlark, Tilting, Meadow-Pipit, and Moss- Cheeper ; it is a com- 

 mon and generally distributed species, being as often met with 

 in the interior of the country, as on the coasts, and frequenting 

 principally wet meadows, commons, and pasture lands. " In 

 winter," says MACGULLIVKAY, "most of the individuals betake 

 themselves to the lower grounds, many to the sea-shore, where 

 they mingle with the Rock-Pipits. During snow, they search 

 the margins of streams and lakes, frequent unfrozen marshes, 

 and even appear in the stack-yards. Their food consists of in- 

 sects, pupa, larvcB, and occasionally small seeds, along with which 

 they pick up particles of gravel, and frequently, in the lower dis- 

 tricts, small bits of coal and other dark-coloured substances. 

 When searching for it, they walk by short alternate steps, keep- 

 ing the body close to the ground, in the manner of the Skylark, 

 and when alarmed, either crouch, or spring up, uttering a repe- 

 tition of their ordinary cheeping note, and fly off to a distance. 

 You may see them occasionally on a bush or tree, frequently on 

 a wall, a stone, or a rock ; but they are essentially ground birds ; 

 and while they are employed all day in traversing the meadows 

 and pastures, they repose at night among the dry grass of the 

 moors and hills, or under the shelter of tufts of heath, furze, or 

 other small shrubs. Their ordinary flight is wavering and de- 

 sultory, but when they fly with speed, in an undulating line. 

 They are not generally very shy, so that they are easily shot, but 

 at the same time they are evidently watchful and suspicious, and 

 fly off when one approaches nearer than thirty yards." 



This is the bird in whose nest, it is said, the Cuckoo most fre- 

 quently deposits its egg, and in reference to which a remarkable 

 instance of sagacity is mentioned by THOMPSON, in his papers on the 

 Natural History of Ireland. A nest of this bird having being dis- 

 covered by some truant boys, on the side of a drain, where, as 

 well as on the ground in fields, it was frequently known to build, 

 was by them deprived of the grassy covering which concealed it. 

 On visiting the spot a day after this occurrence, he found a quantity 

 of withered grass laid regularly across the nest ; this he removed, 

 and out flew the bird. On the day after, he repeated his visit, and 

 again found the grass similarly placed, and discovered a small 

 aperture beneath, by which egress was afforded to the bird, that 

 had evidently herself thus endeavoured to screen her nest from 

 observation. 



