THE TREE-PIPIT. 329 



song he generally makes use of a tree as an intermediate 

 station both in rising into the air, and in descending to the 

 ground. By successive leaps, he gains the top of the tree, 

 and after having rested there for a little, he leaps higher into 

 the air in a similar manner, chirping as he leaps. When 

 he has gained the top of his ascent (which is not very lofty), 

 he begins his song, and while uttering it, he slides down the 

 air with expanded wing, a tail erected and spread, till he 

 again reaches the tree, where he pauses a little, and then 

 descends to the ground in the same manner. Many of the 

 weak- winged birds that feed chiefly upon the ground have the 

 same habit of getting to a height, and resting a little there 

 before they take their flight from place to place ; but there 

 is perhaps none in which it is so marked as in the tree-pipit. 

 That habit does not extend to birds that find their food in 

 trees, but only to those which have the feet better adapted 

 for walking than for perching. That is the case with the 

 tree-pipit. It can walk or run very easily, and at the same 

 time pick up its food ; but when it perches, it can do little 

 else than balance itself; and those birds which feed in trees 

 have generally just as little command of themselves on the 

 ground. 



The part of a tree on which a bird perches is not a bad 

 means of ascertaining whether it be a surface-bird or a tree- 

 bird. Surface-birds, even when they flock, so as to cover the 

 whole top of the tree, always perch on the top or the topmost 

 part, while tree-birds hop into the tree, and leap about from 

 one twig to another. The sparrow and the red-breast are 

 ffl.rm1ia.rj though not the most striking, illustrations. The 

 sparrow merely rests in the leafless tree in winter, the red- 

 breast hops about in it as if quite at home. That habit is 

 well worth attending to, especially in the winter, when both 

 tree and surface birds come near the houses, and perch on 

 the leafless trees. 



