1 Its chicks frequently form the staple diet of the offspring ol the merlin." 



THE MEADOW PIPIT 



T 



HE Meadow Pipit, or Titlark, 

 as it is very frequently 

 called, is one of the most 

 numerous and widely dis- 

 tributed birds of the British 

 Islands. It breeds practi- 

 cally everywhere, alongside 

 coot and water-rail on broad 

 and mere, in proximity to gull and 

 guillemot on the seashore, and on the 

 lonely mountain top where ptarmigan 

 and golden plover hold almost undis- 

 puted sway. It is, however, most numer- 

 ous in high moorland districts, where it 

 is no uncommon thing to find as many 

 as half a dozen nests in a day's wander, 

 without troubling to look for them. 



This species is smaller than either the 

 Rock Pipit or the Tree Pipit, to both of 

 which it is closely related, but, although 

 it will rear its young ones wherever they 

 rear theirs, I have never met with the 

 former nesting away from the sound of 

 the sea, or the latter at any distance 

 from trees of some kind. 



The Meadow Pipit is a resident British 

 bird, those breeding on high ground 

 resorting to lower country in winter, and 

 having their numbers considerably aug- 

 mented by arrivals from the Continent. 



The male is a persistent vocalist ; 

 mounting the air to a height of some 

 thirty or forty feet, he delivers the greater 

 portion of his shrill ditty whilst gliding 

 slowly down with outstretched wings to 

 some favourite boulder, stunted bush, or 

 old stone wall, at no great distance from 

 his sitting mate. Although the song is 

 easily distinguished from that of the 

 Tree Pipit by anyone acquainted with 

 the accomplishments of both species, the 

 difference is not easily described on 

 paper. It may, however, without doing 

 the bird an injustice, be put down as 

 shriller and less musical. 



A hole beneath an overhanging tuft 

 of grass, rushes, or heather, is generally 

 selected for the nest, but it may some- 

 times be found in a cleft of rock or 

 beneath a stone in such a position as 



