308 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



and leaving early in October. It frequents wooded streams particularly, and often 

 builds its nest in birches and other lowland growth. The eggs are four, usually 

 laid about the middle of May, and are white in ground-color, speckled and spotted 

 with various shades of brown and gray, chiefly around the larger end. Size .63 x .48. 

 The nest is a compact, cup-shaped structure, made of shreds of plants and fibers 

 held together with spiders' webs and lined with fine grass and hair. The nest may 

 be placed in a fork, or saddled on a horizontal limb, at a height of five to forty 

 feet from the ground. 



The male Redstart almost invariably spreads his tail when flying, and thus ex- 

 hibits the conspicuous orange patches which it bears. 



At Raleigh many of the breeding males are found to be in immature plumage 

 with little or no black, which fact is said to be an indication of the species being 

 near the limit of its breeding range. 



52. FAMILY MOTACILLID>. WAGTAILS AND PIPITS 



Genus Anthus (Bechst.) 

 314. Anthus rubescens (Tunst.). PIPIT. 



Description: Ads. in winter. Outer tail-feather largely white, next one or two white-tipped. 

 Above warm grayish brown; wing-coverts tipped with whitish or buffy; longest tertial longer 

 than fifth primary; a whitish or buffy line over eye; below buffy (whitish just before spring molt), 

 breast and sides streaked with fuscous; hind toe-nail longest, as long as or longer than its toe. 

 After spring molt upperparts grayer, underparts more pinkish buff; but these colors fade as 

 breeding season advances. L., 6.38; W., 3.50; T., 2.69; B., .47. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. North America, breeding far northward and in the higher Rocky Mountains. 



Range in North Carolina. Whole State in winter. 



FIG. 252. PIPIT. 



The Pipit or Titlark, locally called "Skylark," is an irregular winter visitor in 

 eastern and central North Carolina from the latter part of October to about the 

 end of March. While here it travels in large flocks, frequenting open fields, where 

 the surface of the ground is comparatively bare. Its gait is a walk, not a hop, and 

 it wags its tail continually as it moves. 



In the mountain region it would appear to be a transient rather than a winter 

 visitor, as Cairns records it from Buncombe County only in spring and fall, and 

 at Andrews it has been noted from October 29 to December 15 in autumn, and 

 February 21 to March 22 in spring. 



