TAWNY PIPIT. 241 



where olives and vines are cultivated^ wherever the rocks permit^ I did not 

 meet with it at all. It is especially common on the undulating prairie 

 country^ half rock and half grass and heathy between Athens and Marathon. 



The Tawny Pipit is a somewhat early migrant for a hird having such 

 a southern range. It crosses the Mediterranean during the month of 

 April, a few even appearing as early as the last week of March. It arrives 

 on the southern shores of the North Sea and the Baltic late in April ; but 

 Nilsson says that it does not reach South Sweden before May. The 

 return migration commences late in August, and is said to be all over by 

 the end of September. 



In many respects the habits of the Tawny Pipit resemble those of a 

 Lark. It runs with great swiftness on the ground, then suddenly mounts 

 some stone or little elevation, looks round, calls to its mate in a prolonged 

 double note (something like ger-veei), moves its tail up and down, dis- 

 appears, and runs on again. This monotonous double note is often heard 

 during the breeding-season, as the male is perched on a bunch of heath or 

 some other conspicuous tuft of herbage. Of its habits in Algeria Dixon 

 writes : — "The Tawny Pipit ia the more elevated parts of Algeria is very 

 common, and is a bird that cannot easily be passed unseen. To look at its 

 plumage one might almost e?;pect to meet with it only in the Desert ; but 

 in summer, at any rate, it does not frequent that saudy waste, and we only 

 met with it on the elevated plateaux beyond Constantine and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Batna and Lambessa. The road between these two latter 

 places runs through rich meadows and barley-fields, and abounded with 

 Tawny Pipits in abundance. I saw them only in pairs ; they were very 

 tame, and often allowed themselves to be almost trodden upon before 

 they would take wing. I often saw them running about very quickly over 

 the bare pieces of ground, stopping now and then to look round to see if 

 they were being pursued. When flushed they would often fly for a little 

 distance in a very straightforward manner, not undulating, as their usual 

 flight is, and perch on a little tuft of higher vegetation, or on a boulder, 

 or even a paling. Many of the birds were on the road, where you 

 could witness their actions very closely as they ran up and down like a 

 Wagtail, often giving their tail a sharp jerk, accompanied by a flicking 

 movement of the wings. They seemed to especially prefer a large un, 

 enclosed plain of rough land on which no crop was sown, what we 

 should call summer fallow in England. Here I repeatedly saw the birds 

 soar into the air for a little way and sing their loud but simple song, 

 which put me in mind of the Sky-Lark's notes, although not so rich or so 

 sweet. It does not soar so high as the Tree- Pipit, and seems anxious 

 to get to the ground again. When alarmed by the report of a gun, 

 the birds close at hand would generally rise for some distance into the air 

 and betake themselves to safer quarters in a drooping flight, uttering 



VOL. 11. ^ 



