ing bush. Very fine straw, hay, the finer tendrils of the roots of plants and shrubs, and bits of moss compose 
the exterior; hair, small tufts of sheep’s wool, and filaments of dried grass the interior. The eggs, which 
are four or five in number, are sometimes greyish white, at others pale greenish white, eovered with small 
irregular spots of deep brown and greenish olive, placed so thickly at the larger end that the ground-colour 
is scarcely perceptible. 
“ Sometimes a second but less numerous brood is produced. The young scatter themselves over the 
meadows, the borders of pools, springs, and miry places, where they feed upon worms, maggots, flies, and 
snails. At times, and especially in the morning, the birds assemble on some spot exposed to the first rays of 
the sun, and there form a numerous company, which, as the beams become more ardent, gradually disperse 
into damp or shady places. On the approach of an intruder they all rise one after another, uttering warning 
cries of At the end of September or a little later, acordlng to the season, they descend from the 
mountains singly, in pairs, or in small flocks, to the damp fields covered with verdure, artificial meadows, 
winding streams, and the borders of ponds and marshes. They are nearly always on the ground, often in 
company with Meadow-Pipits, running like them over the mud and the leaves of aquatic plants, in search for 
insects, small worms, prawns, and little shell-fish upon which they subsist. As soon as the cold becomes 
intense, they betake themselves to the bogs and the borders of springs and other waters that are not frozen, 
and pass the nights in the holes of trees, especially willows. When all other food fails from the severity of 
the weather, they have recourse to the smallest seeds or berries of the plants which grow near water, and 
swallow them whole. Should the winter continue unusually rigorous, they leave the country entirely, and 
return again when the snows have melted. This bird is somewhat more wild than its congeners, does not 
allow of a near approach, but is easily captured with nets, if one or two of its kind be employed as decoys.” 
flanks olive. 
Head and back of the neck grey ; upper surface olive, with a dark-brown centre to each feather ; wings dark 
brown, the coverts broadly tipped with buffy grey, forming tvvo bands ; axillaiues greyish white ; primaries 
very narrowly edged with pale olive ; tail dark brown, the outermost feathers with an oblique mark of white 
along the apical portion of the outer web and the tip of the inner one; the next on each side with a small 
patch of white at the tip ; superciliary stripe greyish white, lores and ear-coverts grey ; under surface vinous, 
passing into buff on the centre of the abdomen, which again fades into the white of the under tail-coverts ; 
In another state the upper surface is similar, but the under surface differs in having the throat vinous, and 
a series of brown streaks down each side of it, while the abdomen is greenish yellow, streaked with brown 
on the upper part of the flanks, and the white mark on the tail feathers is much less conspicuous. 
The figures are of the size of life. 
