176 
TAWNY PIPIT. 
is found during its passage also in the north of France. 
It is a connnon bird in Lorraine, Sicily, and Provence, 
especially in the department of the Var and the Basses 
Alpes, where it stays from April to September. It is 
found in the temperate parts of Asia, Nubia, and 
Egypt, and is included in Mr. Tristram’s list of birds, 
observed by him in Palestine, and on the Hants Pla- 
teaux of Northern Africa. 
The following account of the habits of the Tawny 
Pipit is from M. Dubois’ “Birds of Belgium,” a work 
which has the merit of giving in the short notice of 
each bird, a coirsiderable amount of information of its 
mode of life: — 
“The ‘Pipit des Champs’ lives by preference on ex- 
tensive dry plains, where hardly a plant or a tree is 
to be found; it loves much to live in large flocks, 
shunning the high grass and bushes. It is almost always 
on the ground, sometimes perched upon a hillock, a ^ 
stone, or a bush ; rarely it is found on trees. It is very 
shy, lively, and coy in its movemeirts. The male has a 
singular song, composed of short, uniform, and melan- 
choly tones, which it utters while flyiirg; in autumn it 
congregates in small flocks in fallow flelds. 
It feeds upon small coleoptera, spiders, and many 
other insects and their larvae. Its nest is found on the 
ground, in slight hollows sheltered by a bush; it is 
composed of blades of grass and moss, the interior being 
lined with hair and rootlets, and it contains four or flve 
eggs. The young quit the nest before they can fly, 
for they can always run sufficiently well to hide them- 
selves in the grass, corn, or brushwood.” 
According to Degland, “it builds in sand-beds, in flelds 
on the ground, under the cover of a stone, or a clod, 
or a small bush; sometimes on the mountains, in the 
