The Meadow- Pi pit. 197 



arable land, and, drifting like waste paper down the wind, is gone with a yhit, 

 yhit, yhit, almost before we fairly see it. In summer it is nowhere more abundant 

 than in the district of the broads, where it sings from the top of the small alder 

 and sallow bushes, which are scattered in many places over the drier marshes, and 

 cheeping as it ascends from a projecting spray, utters its simple but pleasing song, 

 ■with quivering wings and outspread tail, as it slowly descends to its station 

 again." 



The above is the most characteristic description of the Titlark which I have 

 met with, and therefore I have not hesitated to quote it for the benefit of those 

 not conversant with this species. 



My first experience of the Meadow- Pipit as. an aviary bird was in October, 

 1888, when a bird-catcher brought me a male example which I turned into my outer 

 aviary : I found it perfectly harmless and amiable towards the other inhabitants of 

 the aviary, until other specimens of its species were associated with it ; and, having 

 no mate of its own, it took a great fancy to a Hedge-Sparrow, but the latter had 

 already made up to a Garden- Warbler : I recorded this in the "Zoologist" for 

 July, 1889, as follows: — "I frequently noticed my Hedge-Sparrow following the 

 Garden- Warbler about, and trying to entice him to pair with her ; on one occasion 

 I noticed her behaving in a similar manner towards the Pied- Wagtail, but both 

 birds treated her with the utmost indifference ; the Meadow-Pipit however strutted 

 about in the greatest excitement, and tried in every way to make up to her, though 

 she constantly gave a peck whenever he advanced near to her." 



In November, 1889, nine Meadow-Pipits were brought to me by a bird-catcher, 

 who sold them to me at 2d. apiece; they were all freshly netted and very wild. 

 I turned the whole of these birds out with that received the previous year, and 

 hoped that I should have the pleasure of hearing some of them sing in 1890; but 

 first the Hedge-Sparrow attacked and killed several of them, and then they began 

 quarrelling among themselves, fighting like little Game-cocks whenever they met, 

 so that by December only two remained alive, and even one of these succumbed 

 to its injuries before the end of the year, leaving a solitary hen. 



To look at these elegant little birds one would never imagine that they could 

 exhibit evil passions; but my experience clearly demonstrates the danger of 

 attempting to keep more than one male in an enclosure. The female which re- 

 mained and was so sprightly a bird, that for some months I imagined her to be 

 a male, eventually proved her sex by laying an ^%% in a nest built by a Canar}- 

 in one of the bushes, about two feet from the ground : it was an odd place for a 

 Titlark to lay in, but perhaps not so remarkable as the fact that a Canary, turned 

 loose into an aviary, and having no model to guide her, should have reverted to 



