86 
AXTRTU.E. 
weather venturing upon the window sills, and occasionally 
rising on wing to pick from the crevices some half-torpid insect. 
Tn hard winter weather it invarialdy comes to the doors, 
feeding unmolested with the poultry. Tn autumn I used to 
observe it regularly at Buness and Halligarth, apparently qiiite 
at home among the trees, searching industriously for such 
insects as had resorted thither for shelter, and especially for a 
small land-shell which was common among the decaying leaves 
and twigs. 
The Bock Pipit is not gregarious in its hal)its, though many 
observers have believed it to be so, misled by the sudden 
appearance of large numbers upon the beach when, after a 
heavy gale, a great quantity of weed has been drifted ashore. 
In warm weather the drifted weed very soon begins to swarm 
with small black flies, and upon these the numerous families 
of Bock Pipits feast incessantly, rapidly becoming very fat. 
The short and pleasing song, accompanied by the same 
singular actions so well known in the tree pipit — the only 
difference being the substitution of a rock for a branch — begins 
about the 12th of March, perhaps never earlier, continuing 
until tlie hatching of the first brood. I have observed that, as 
with the skylark, the first song is invarialjly heard on a fine 
sunny day. 
It pairs about the middle or end of March, but eggs are very 
rarely found earlier than the end of April. The nest is com- 
posed entirely of dry grass, finer towards the inside ; more than 
once I have found a small quantity of dry sea-weed intermixed, 
l)ut only upon two occasions have I observed horse-hair in the 
lining, and in eacli instatice a stable was very near at hand. 
It is usually situated under large stones, either upon the turfy 
summit of a cliff or upon the beach ; less frequently it is found 
in holes ofbanks, in rabbit burrows, in loose stone walls, and 
in crevices of rocks, often half-way down a high sea-cliff. The 
latter situation is not so dangerous for the collector as when 
the nest is near the summit ; since in the one case he is pre- 
pared for a regular climb, while, in the other, the attempt to 
