ROCK PIPIT 45 
is common on the Calf. Its restless motions and frequently 
repeated, though slight note, often draw to it an attention 
which would not be attracted by its unobtrusive plumage. 
The nest, concealed under a tuft of grass, is made early in 
May. Out of the nesting season it is sometimes loosely 
gregarious, and numbers may be met with in a small 
compass of grass-land, Like many other small birds it 
also searches the rubbish and decaying weed of the shore 
for insects, but it is not a true rock-inhabitant like A. 
obscurus. It is noted at both Langness and the Chickens 
in autumn; sometimes ‘a large number, ‘very many, 
‘large flock.” Mr. Kermode observes that in crossing to 
the island in October 1883 he saw seven on passage 
resting on the steamer, and Mr. Graves, in crossing from 
Liverpool, saw one which alighted on the steamer’s deck, 
and ran fearlessly among the passengers and the deck- 
chairs seeking for food. It refused, however, some bread 
crumbs which were thrown to it. 
The Meadow Pipit is pre-eminently a bird of desolate 
places, and is found over the Scottish isles,even on St. 
Kilda, and on the remote islets of western Ireland, in 
which country generally it is abundant, as in England and 
Scotland. 
ANTHUS OBSCURUS (Latham). ROCK PIPIT. 
SEA LARK, 
In its peculiar locality the Rock Pipit is just as common 
as the last named. All along the rocky coast, high or low, 
it is abundant, among the little crags and sea-pink swards 
of Scarlett, on the tide-rocks at the foot of the great cliffs 
of Bradda and Spanish Head, and far amid the gloom of 
