PIPITS. 
433 
The tree - pipits migrate in flocks, and in the spring the birds soon pair, when 
each couple selects its own area of breeding-ground. The song is melodious, its 
notes bearing a strong resemblance to those of the canary. Sometimes this pipit 
sings upon the ground, threading its way furtively through the stems of the hay 
crop, pouring forth in snatches a volume of melody. Oftener the song is uttered 
while the bird is perching on one of the larger branches of a tall tree by the 
roadside, or when on the wing. Mr. Seebohm writes, that it is a pretty sight in 
early spring to watch the tree-pipit essaying his short flights, as he “ springs up 
from the topmost twig of some branch, and mounts nearly perpendicularly into 
the air warbling his pretty song. He soon begins to hover in the air, and, as if 
fatigued by his recent journey, almost immediately descends with tail and wings 
extended like a parachute, and at last finishes his song on the ground, in a tree, or 
on a wall. His downward course is in a semi-spiral curve, and he alights where 
the curve of his flight would make a tangent to the surface of the ground. All 
this time he has been singing melodiously, the clear, rich, joyous notes following 
each other in rapid succession, until, as he reaches his perch, he concludes his song 
with several long-drawn notes expressive of almost impatient anxiety.” The tree- 
pipit nests upon the ground, often upon a bank skirting the edge of a wood; the 
nest being always well concealed, and built of dry stems of grass and moss, lined 
with fine bents and hair. At times several pairs nest on a single strip of moorland, 
although this is unusual. The eggs vary greatly in colour, but the most usual 
type has the ground-colour white, so closely suffused with deep brown as to be almost 
entirely of the latter colour. The young birds leave the nest early and soon 
become independent of their parents. In autumn these birds flock together, and 
many are captured by the bird-catchers. The upper-parts of the tree-pipit are 
brown, the feathers having dark centres, and the lower parts huffish white, pro¬ 
fusely spotted with dark brown. 
Upon the waste moorlands of Western Europe the meadow-pipit 
{A. pratensis), figured in the illustration on p. 431, generally replaces 
the tree -pipit, and finds a congenial abode among peat-bogs and dreary wastes only 
redeemed from ugliness by large strips of cotton-grass. A partial resident in most 
of its haunts, many individuals merely shifting from the higher grounds to the 
plains before the arrival of winter, the meadow-pipit loves rough marshy ground 
and treeless wastes of heather, rearing its young in the most remote and forbidding- 
solitudes. Although its song is inferior in compass to that of the tree-pipit, it is 
chanted on the wing. The meadow-pipit nests on rough ground and undrained 
meadows, building a slight nest of dried stems of grass, often in a tussock of 
herbage, sometimes a very little above the tide-mark on the sea-beach. The eggs 
are white in ground-colour, closely mottled with brown or brownish grey. The 
cuckoo is exceedingly fond of depositing her eggs in the meadow-pipit’s nest; and 
it is diverting to watch a pair of these birds endeavouring to oust one of these 
undesirable neighbours from their vicinity. It is often assumed that the 
cuckoo finds a willing dupe in the meadow-pipit, but such is not the case in 
actual fact. When the cuckoos first arrive in England, and commence to pair and 
lay, the meadow-pipits assail the strangers with persistency, not only mobbing 
them with angry cries, but also using physical means to enforce their opinions; 
vol. in .—28 
