176 TAWNY PIPIT. 



is foinid during its passage also in the north of France. 

 It is a common bird in Lorraine, Sicily, and Provence, 

 especially in the department of the A-^ar 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 considerable 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 movements. The male has a 

 singular song, composed of short, uniform, and melan- 

 choly tones, which it utters while flying; in autumn it 

 congregates in small flocks in fallow fields. 



It feeds upon small coleoptera, spiders, and many 

 other insects and their larvtc. 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 five 

 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 fields 

 on the ground, under the cover of a stone, or a clod, 

 or a small bush; sometimes on the mountains, in the 



