the months of summer should not occasionally stray out of its course and visit the British Islands. This 
country, however, seems but ill adapted for a lengthened sojourn, its habits being peculiar, and the situa- 
tions it affects not being numerous in our humid climate ; for it is in open sterile districts, and such hot 
and parched localities as occur in many parts of France, Spain, and Italy, that the bird finds a congenial 
home, just as the Meadow-Pipit does in the soft boggy parts of our moorlands. How different are the habits 
of the two species, and how instructive is a knowledge of them ! This difference at once accounts for the 
very opposite styles of their colouring, one being dressed in dust-coloured feathers of a hue very similar to 
that of the sand over which it runs, the other in an olive-green costume, assimilating in tint to the grassy 
herbage of the moorlands, the swamps, and the hillsides it frequents. 
The Tawny Pipit, which is more commonly known by the name of Anthus rufescens than by that of 
A. campestm, first assigned to it, is strictly a summer visitant to most parts of the European continent, 
})articularly France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. It proceeds as far north as Southern Sweden, is much 
more numerous in North Africa, and is equally abundant in Palestine, Persia, Scinde, and the peninsula of 
India, where Mr. Jerdon states it is found in all suitable places, and adds, “ I have noticed that it inmost 
abundant in the Deccan, at Mhow in Central India, and on the Eastern Ghauts ; it is rare in the Carnatic. 
Blyth has it from Midnapore and the north-Avestern provinces. It frequents barren, open, stony land, and 
is never found in rich pastures or meadows.” 
Bailly states that in Savoy it is a bird of passage, and is never very common ; “ it arrives in April and returns 
again during the first fortnight of October. In spring it generally appears singly, in couples, or in threes, 
and in autumn in small flocks of from three to five. A few remain and breed among small stony hillocks 
thinly clothed with shrubs and heath, the nest being constructed early in May, at the foot of a small shrub, 
a tuft of grass, or other plants ; it is composed of small pieces of moss, dried grasses, and roots, lined with 
wool, horsehair, and vegetable fibres ; the eggs, are five or six in number, white, or bluish white, sprinkled 
with small spots, streaks, and dashes of brown, violet, and brownish red. During the period of incubation 
the male diligently feeds the female, and continues to solace her with his song, consisting of one or two 
notes repeated fifteen or twenty times in succession while obliquely ascending to a moderate height and 
dropj)lng again almost vertically to the ground ; these notes are less frequently heard after the young are 
hatched, and by the middle of July cease entirely. About the end of August or the beginning of September 
the TaAvny Pipit resorts to the plains and the ploughed lands, retiring during the middle or hotter part of 
the day to the shelter of the hills. Its food consists of maggots, small Avorms, millepedes, small spiders, 
and grasshoppers, flies and other insects caught while flying, and small snails seized from the stalks of 
grasses. It evinces but little fear of man, and on being disturbed merely runs with great swiftness to a 
short distance, and then stops as if to ascertain the cause of its fear. When a small number travel in com- 
pany, they frequently call to each other ; by imitating this call our bird-catchers easily entice them into 
their traps.” 
M. Dubois, in his Avork on the Birds of Belgium, informs us that the Tawny Pipit evinces a “ preference 
for extensive dry plains, Avhere but few trees or plants occur, and shuns high grass and bushes. It is 
almost always on the ground, sometimes perched upon a hillock or stone, or a bush, but is rarely found 
on trees. Is very lively, but shy or coy in its movements. The singular song of the male is composed of 
a series of short, uniform, and melancholy notes which it utters Avhile flying. The nest is placed in slight 
hollows of the ground, sheltered by a bush. The young quit the nest before they can fly 5 for they can 
always run sufficiently well to hide themselves in the grass, corn, or brusliAvood.” 
Degland states that it sometimes constructs its nest in the creA’ices of rocks, that it runs both quickly and 
gracefully, that it rarely perches on trees, and that its cry is very like that of the Short-toed Lark. 
The Rev. Mr. Tristram informed Dr. Bree that the egg of this bird is very variable, though not so much 
so as that of Anthus arhoreus. Some of his specimens approach those of the Pied Wagtail; in others the 
russet spots are as large, thick, and bright as in Sykia galactodes, which egg this variety greatly resembles. 
During the breeding-season the feathers of the upper surface of the male are light brown in the centre, 
so largely margined with greyish buff that the darker tint is but little perceptible, and the whole presents a 
mealy appearance ; Avings dark brown, all the feathers except the primaries broadly margined with bright 
huff, with a reddish tinge on those bordering the coverts and secondaries ; primaries brown, narrowly edged 
with greyish buff; two centre tail-feathers dark brown, bordered with greyish buff; tAvo outer tail-feathers 
huffy white, Avith a broad stripe of dark brown down the margin of the inner web, and a narrow interrupted 
line of the same hue on the outer Aveb toAvards the tip ; the remaining tail-feathers dark broAvn ; over the 
eye a streak of huffy Avhite ; ear-coverts dark brown ; a small moustache-like streak of brown on each side 
beneath the eye ; all the under surface very pale buff, washed with a deeper tint across the breast and down 
the flanks ; a few faint streaks of brown on the sides of the neck and breast ; irides brown ; upper mandible 
blackish brown, lower mandible yellowish ; tarsi and feet flesh-colour. 
The figures are of the natural size. The beetle is the Ckmdela campestris. 
