PIPITS. 
435 
river-beds, and chains of swampy lakes, full of tall sedges and reeds and water- 
plants of various kinds, and lialf-concealed by willow-bushes and alders, whilst far 
away in the distance the horizon is bounded on every side by the forest. These 
oases of grass in the boundless forest are the paradise of Richard’s pipit. As I 
wandered away from the town this bird became more common. I found it 
difficult to shoot them on the ground, as they ran about on the grass; but I soon 
obtained as many examples as I wanted, as they hovered in the air almost like the 
kestrel. . . . Dybowski found them equally common on the plateaus near Lake 
Baikal, at an elevation of five thousand feet above the level of the sea. They arrive 
about the middle of May, and build their nests upon the ground in the grass. They 
usually choose a hollow in the meadows, such as the footprint in the soft earth of 
a cow or a horse. The first nest is made in the first half of June, and frequently a 
second brood is reared, the eggs being laid in the second half of July. The nests 
are said to be very difficult to find. The male keeps watch, and, on the approach 
of danger, he gives the alarm to the female, who leaves the nest and runs along 
the ground for some distance, when she rises and joins the male in endeavouring 
to entice the intruder from the nest with anxious cries.” The eggs vary in 
number, from four to six; some are profusely spotted all over with minute specks 
and blotches of greenish brown upon a pale greenish white ground-colour, whilst 
in others the spots are reddish brown upon a pinkish white ground-colour. The 
adult has the upper-parts nearly uniform brown, beneath huffish white darkest 
on the breast, which is streaked with dark brown. Richard’s pipit may be known 
by the long metatarsus and the long claw of the first toe. 
The species {A. spipoletta ) represented in the upper figure on p. 
434, is commonly termed the water-pipit, but as it is a rock-haunting 
bird it is better named the Alpine pipit. It is a circumpolar species, and has only 
been obtained rarely in the British Isles. Although nearly allied to the rock-pipit 
it breeds above the snow line on the highest mountains. 
The haunts of the tawny pipit {A. campestris ) are chiefly in 
desert-regions, at least through a large portion of its range. In 
Europe it is chiefly known as a summer visitor to certain favoured districts, such 
as the sierras of Spain and Portugal, the sand-dunes of the Baltic coast-line, and 
sparingly on high ground in Central France. It is a shy and wary species, even 
on the breeding-ground. Mr. Seebohm found it very common in Greece, where it 
is the only pipit that nests. It there prefers the open plains, being especially 
common on the undulating prairie country, half rock and half grass and heath, 
between Athens and Marathon. It runs on the ground with great agility, and has 
a restless zigzag flight, which appears less undulating than that of the meadow- 
pipit. The nest, according to Mr. Seebohm, “is sometimes under a bush, 
sometimes beneath a tuft of dense herbage, or under the shelter of a clod of 
earth; at others in the open plain amongst the growing crops, and often near a 
dried-up streamlet on a bank beside a convenient stone. It is made of dry 
grass, often intermixed with a few stems of coarse herbage or straws, together 
with roots, and lined with horsehair.” The eggs are white in ground-colour, 
profusely spotted with reddish brown and underlying spots of grey. The tawny 
pipit migrates from its breeding-ground in August, at which season it has occa- 
Water-Pipit. 
Tawny Pipit. 
