ANTHID.E. 



plumage, this bird has habits and manners that sufficiently 

 distinguish it, independent of the different formation of its 

 legs and beak. 



The song of the Tree Pipit is very sweet and pleasing, and 

 frequently delivered on the wing. In summer, the male may be 

 seen ascending, with a twittering note, from the top of a tree 

 to a little elevation in the air, and then, commencing his song 

 and his return at the same time, slowly descends, with tail 

 fanned and wings erect. Sometimes the song is uttered from 

 the upper branch of a tree, or from the ground. 



The nest of this species, which is almost invariably placed 

 upon the ground, is composed of dry grasses and fibrous 

 roots, and lined with similar materials in a finer state, inter- 

 mingled with hair. The eggs of the Tree Pipit, according 

 to Montagu, are dirty bluish-white, thickly blotched and 

 spotted with purplish-brown. Temminck describes them as 

 reddish-white, entirely covered with numerous specks of deep 

 red. In these descriptions we are shown the two most dis- 

 tinct variations of the Tree Pipit's eggs, the former of which 

 we consider the most characteristic of the species, as the latter 

 assimilates with the eggs of the meadow-pipit. We possess 

 specimens of both these varieties of the Tree Pipit's eggs, 

 but the ground of both is reddish. One, which we represent, 

 (in fig. 91,) has all the peculiarities of this species in great 

 perfection ; it is nearly round, being but little lengthened at 

 the larger end, and the surface bears very little polish. The 

 ground colour is reddish-white, clouded with pale purple-ash, 

 and more distinctly marked and marbled with purplish-red 

 spots, of various forms and sizes ; there appear, besides, seve- 

 ral very distinct spots and hair-like streaks of rich black. 

 The whole has more the appearance of a pebble than of an 

 egg, and is nine lines in length by eight in diameter. An- 

 other specimen, of the opposite character, is in the ground 

 colour pale purplish-red, finely mottled with minute marks 



