in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds of J a p a n ;’ but the Japanese bird is now recognized as distinct, and called
A . japonicus.
Macgillivray states that “ during the brccding-season the male is easily alarmed, and flutters over an intruder,
emitting its shrill notes; but while incubating, the female will allow a person to walk close to her without
rising; and when she does fly oif, it is with a cowering fluttering motion, with the tail expanded, as if she
were under the influence of disease or extreme terror.” The following interesting account of another of
the artifices employed by this bird for the protection of its eggs, has been kindly transmitted to me by
Edward Romilly, Esq., of Porth Kerry, Glamorganshire:—
“ The following circumstance, which I observed in the spring of 1858, would tend to show that birds are
endowed with something more than instinct. A Meadow-Pipit had built her nest on a sloping bank of grass,
a few yards from a path which was at the bottom. On my passing near the nest, the mother left it, and,
after the fashion of her race, ran limping along the ground, as if wounded, and looking at me with an anxious
and imploring expression, to attract apparently my attention to her and save her nest, which had five little
brown eggs in it. The next morning the same scene was repeated; but on the third, as I passed by to look
at my feathered friend, I found to my surprise two withered oak leaves placed upright on the edge of the
nest, which more effectually concealed it from the path, and the mother quietly sitting behind her
simple but ingeniously constructed fan in: apparent security. Whether she trusted to her new defence, or
had learnt to know me better, I cannot say; but we looked at each other for some seconds with mutual
confidence, and I left her to her maternal cares.”
To this I may append the following instance related by the late William Thompson, Esq. “ Mr. J . R.
Garrett has frequently found the nest of the Meadow Pipit on the banks of watercourses and drains, as well
as on the level ground in fields. One which was known to him at the side of a drain, was discovered by
some bird-nesting boys, who pulled the grass away that concealed it. On visiting the nest the next day, he
observed a quantity of withered grass laid regularly across; having removed the grass, which, from its
coutrast in colour with the surrounding herbage, was supposed to have been placed there as a mark by the
boys, the bird flew off. The grass was found similarly placed on the following day; and he perceived a sma.
aperture beneath it, by which the bird took its departure, thus indicating that the screen which harmonized
so ill with the surrounding verdure, had been brought there by the bird itself.”
The nest is usually placed in a slight depression of the ground, often beside a tuft of grass, the better to
escape notice, and is composed of various grasses, with a finer lining of the same material and a few hairs.
A nest brought to me by Mr. Smither, of Churt, was externally formed of reindeer- and other mosses with
an interior lining of fine grasses. The eggs are from four to six in number, 9 lines long by 7 lines broad,
and of a reddish brown mottled all over with darker brown.
The birdcatchers of the neighbourhood of London affirm that this species performs a partial migration in
spring and autumn, passing Primrose Hill (where some of my specimens were taken) in April, and repassing
it again on the approach of winter. Independently of the difference in the hind claws of this bird and of the
Tree-Lark, the two species are readily distinguished by them from the variation in the colouring of the
legs, those of the former being orange-brown, while those of the latter are fleshy white.
The food of the Titlark consists of insects, worms, small shelled Mollusks, and a few seeds.
The flight is usually of a wavering character, and is performed in a series of short unequal je rk s ; but
when proceeding to a distance, it is executed with speed and in an undulating manner.
Feathers of the head, neck, back, wings and upper tail-coverts dark brown, margined with olive-brown ;
wing-coverts broadly margined with pale brown; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries brownish black,
margined with light brown; outer tail-feathers on each side white, with a patch of brown on the inner web,
the next on each side brown, with a small patch of white on the tip of the inner web, the remaining feathers
blackish brown; chin, throat, and sides of the neck tawny; ear-coverts brown ; under surface tawny, spotted
with dark brown on the breast and flanks ; bill light olive-brown, the culmen and extreme tip darker; tarsi
and toes orange-brown, joints rather darker, nails olive; irides.dark brown, surrounded by a neat feathery
yellowish-buff lash.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the size of life. The plant is the Sundew, Drosera rotund form.