R O C K - P I P I T .
JXTIIUS OBSCURUS.
Tin: name of Hock-Pipit is by no means misapplied. Pvery paw of Ureal Ilritain, from north to south, as well
as the adjacent islands, where the coast-line is formed by rocks or cliffs, appears to be frequented by this
species. In many of these localities the bird may be found as a resident. When observed where the shores
arc flat or at inland waters, its visits are usually only short, and made during aut until, winter, or early spring.
At any season, with the exception of the height of summer, I have occasionally observed a few of these
Pipits along the Hut portions of the Sussex coast, from Pagbain to Brighton. The muddy edges of the pools
of brackish water inside the shingle-hanks are their favourite haunts. The chalk elitl's between Brighton and
Casthouruo, and in the neighbourhood of I'airligltt near Hastings, are resorted to (hiring the breeding-season,
though those that nest in these localities are by no means so thickly dispersed throughout the range as over
many parts of the more northern coast-line. Pevensey Marsh. Winclielsea bevel, and (across the Kentish border)
Koniuey Marsh are each and all wsilcd by this species at Ihe same seasons as the flat districts to the west
of Brighton. It is seldom that the birds are observed at the inland parts of these marshes, the particular food
(minute worms and small insects) that attracts them appearing to inhabit only those pools that are slightly
impregnated by salt. On the Suffolk coast and marshes, and also in Norfolk, I have only recognized this
species as a visitor. Breydon Wall and Ihe grassy edges of the mudllats (locally known as the rondes) ore the
spots on which the bird is usually observed. I frequently remarked it was most numerous in this locality
during wet and stormy weather. I repeatedly noticed a pair or two resorting to the grail marsh01 round
llickling Broad, though they are seldom seen in this district unless tiic tides arc high and the hills flooded.
They may then be watched Hit ting round the shores of the broad, alighting here and there on any exposed spot,
and eagerly searching for insects and small flies, which they capture among the rotten stems of any heap of
decaying reeds. These marshes are perhaps lour miles in a direct line from the coast; this is the furthest
inland that I have ever observed the Rock-Pipit. I find the following note in one of my journals:—
" October 16, 1873. Noticed soon after daybreak several Rock-Pipits along the walls round Breydon, aad also
in the afternoon on the South Denes. Hundreds of Larks w ere lauding on the sea-beach just before dark."
It is possible, 1 imagine, thai those observed on the Denes were migrants that had crossed the North Sea, as it
was seldom they frequented these dry sandhills. I met. with a few in the elill's and among the rocks on the
Yorkshire coast, both north and south of Whitby. This Pipit nests on several of the larger of tho Fern
Islands oil' the coast of Northumberland, and also on a few of the detached rocks. I have seen their nestl
close to the old lighthouse and the surrounding buildings. At Dunbar, on the coast of Last Lothian,
numbers of these birds breed in the ledges of the rocks in the immediate vicinity of the town. They
are also to be met with all the summer along the sea-shore as far as North Berwick. On the islands in the
firth, the May, the Bass Rock, Craig Leith, and Pidra, they arc particularly plentiful. On the Bass Rock I
have known of as many as tea or a dozen ucsts at one time; and there were doubtless others I failed to