70 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
TREE PIPIT. 
ANTHUS TRIVIALIS, Linn. 
Pl. XI, figs. 3-5. 
Geogr. distr.—North and Central Europe and Asia; migrating 
southwards about October to South Europe, Asia, and N. Africa; in 
Great Britain it is somewhat local; arriving in April and leaving in 
September or October. 
Food.—Larve, insects, and slugs. 
Nest.—Formed of dried grass and bents mixed with moss, some- 
what finer towards the inside, and lined with a few coarse black 
hairs, twisted round as in the nest of the Whitethroat. 
Position of nest.—In a hole in the ground, or in a bank, more or 
less concealed amongst the grass; in meadows surrounded by groves 
and shrubberies; in railway or roadside banks where the grass is 
tolerably long. 
Number of eggs.—4-6; rarely more than 5. 
Time of nidification.—V- VIII. 
The Tree Pipit has been known to reach our shores as 
early as February, and to leave them as late as November ; 
it breeds in most wooded and cultivated districts in Great 
Britain, but rarely in open, unenclosed country; it is, 
therefore, comparatively rare in West Cornwall, and not 
very numerous in Wales, whilst its occurrence in Ireland 
has not been satisfactorily established (Newton in Yarrell, 
4th ed.). 
Though the nest is usually more or less sheltered, one 
in my collection (containing a Cuckoo’s egg) was discovered 
by Mr. Oliver Janson and pointed out to me, in the centre 
of an enclosed meadow of rank grass surrounded by planta- 
tions and garden shrubberies; his attention was drawn to 
it by seeing the bird fly off, otherwise it would have been 
as difficult to discover as the nest of the Sky Lark. 
Probably few eggs offer more remarkable and unexpected 
variations than those of the Tree Pipit, as will, indeed, be 
seen by those which I have figured from specimens in my 
own series; every modification also occurs between the 
red variety and a form resembling the egg of the Meadow 
Pipit figured on my plate. 
