96 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
Round Laverstoke it is not uncommon, also at Overton, 
Deane, Oakley, and in parts of the northern woodlands ; 
in all these places nests have been found. 
It often resorts to the same locality to nest year after 
year, and the nest may be found in the same spot, or close 
to where it was built the year before. 
The following note by Charles Kingsley lies forgotten 
in the 1872 volume of "Science Gossip/' A certain cor- 
respondent having written as if the tree-pipit and Alauda 
arborea were one and the same, Kingsley replies thus : " I 
do not wish to be too critical, but may I ask your pleasant 
correspondent . . . which of two very different (and by me 
long confounded) birds he means by the tree-pipit. The 
tree-pipit's book name is AntJius arboreus, and it is, it 
seems, the Alauda trivialis of Pennant and Montagu. 
"The true tree-lark, becoming, alas ! scarce in Hampshire, 
is Alauda arborea^ of a different sub-genus, being a true 
lark. 
" If killed — which heaven forbid any man should do by 
them — the two birds may be distinguished thus roughly : 
The tree-pipit has the longer bill and short hind- claw of 
the Anthus, and spotted stomach; the tree-lark has the 
shorter bill and long hind-claw of the Alauda, and a stomach 
without spots. It is also a thicker and less grey -coloured 
bird. The habits of the two when singing on the wing are 
so alike as to have puzzled me often. The distinction 
which I should make is, that the tree-pipit in hovering 
spreads its tail like a fan, and curves its wings downwards, 
which I have not seen the tree-lark do. The tree-lark 
certainly sings at night, as described by Mr. Drew, and its 
song is one of the most exquisite and flute-like I know, far 
surpassing that of the tree-pipit." 
A study of the bird and its habits would repay any 
