43 2 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
off to great advantage by the white eyestripe, the under-parts being pure yellow. 
The female has the crown of the head greenish brown instead of blue, and the 
eyestripe is less pure; the under-parts being of a duller yellow. A figure of this 
bird is given on the left side of the woodcut on p. 431. 
The European wagtails are replaced as familiar birds in South 
Africa by several allied species, of which the best known is the 
Cape wagtail (31 capensis). Frequenting the crowded cities no less than the 
outlying farmhouses, this wagtail is everywhere protected, in recognition of its 
charming ways. Like their European cousins, these birds consort much with 
cattle, for the sake of the small flies found about those animals; and they also 
frequent the sea-beach to procure the flies bred in the putrefying seaweed. The 
nest is generally constructed in the side of a bank, or a crevice of a stone wall; 
it is cup-shaped and constructed of dry grass lined with cows’ hair and fur. Some¬ 
times it is built under some projecting stone or overhanging root on the bank of a 
stream. The eggs are brownish cream-colour, freckled with brown. The Cape 
wagtail has the dipping flight peculiar to the genus, and like other wagtails is fond 
of seeking its food on the margins of muddy streams; and it has a pretty 
song, which however is seldom uttered. Sometimes it is seen in flocks, especially 
when the birds are gathering to roost in some favourite tree; at other times it 
lives chiefly in pairs, preying upon insects, which it takes both upon the ground 
and on the wing. The adult male has the head and hind-neck ashy grey, the 
eyestripe, cheeks, and throat white, the upper-parts brown, washed with olive, the 
tail-feathers blackish brown, with the exception of the outer feathers which are 
chiefly white; a black crescentic band crosses the neck, and the breast and under¬ 
parts are yellowish white, and the sides of the body brown. 
The pipits of the genus Anthus form a large group of plain- 
coloured birds, characterised by the possession of a slender bill very 
slightly notched at the tip. The legs are proportionately slender and generally 
adapted for terrestrial progression ; the wings are moderate in length, but the tail is 
comparatively short, and often slightly forked. Unlike the larks, the pipits have 
the nostrils unprotected by feathers; but in certain species the first toe is much 
elongated. Practically cosmopolitan in their distribution, pipits are represented in 
all parts of the world except the islands of the South Pacific; they are, however, 
really an Old World race, since only two, out of a total of some forty known species, 
are inhabitants of North America. 
Tree Pipit Even in Northern Europe, the tree-pipit (A. arboreus) is a fairly 
well-known bird, but its favourite haunts are the mild climate of the 
British Isles and Central Europe; and it shuns high and barren regions, preferring 
the shelter of well-timbered valleys and the undulating hollows of English parks. 
All the pipits are quarrelsome and fond of fighting individuals of their own kind; 
and on one occasion we observed a tree-pipit chase another of the same species 
against the side of an hotel in Switzerland, the pursuer following up the chase 
with such energy that he was unable to check his course, and, dashing against the 
window, dropped stunned on the ground. Another time a tree-pipit chose to take 
up his abode in a small garden which was also a favourite hunting-ground of a 
robin, and although the fight was sharp the robin was eventually vanquished. 
