ANTHUS ARBOREUS, Bechst.
Tree-Pipit.

? Alauda trivialis, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 288.
minor, Mont. Orn. Dict.
Anthus arboreus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iii. p. 706.
Motacilla spipola, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. i. p. 512.
Alauda turdine, Scop.
Anthus trivialis, Flem. Brit. Anim., p. 75.
Pipastes arboreus, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 33.
Anthus foliorum, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 326.
juncorum, Brehm, ib., p. 326.
herbarum, Brehm, ib., p. 327.

 

 

I wisu I could imbue the minds of all my readers with the same degree of love for our native birds that
reigns in my own, or could set forth in clear and truthful language the many charms of this comparatively
plain-plumaged little bird; but as I am unable to do this to the extent or in the manner I desire, I must
content myself with penning what I may to this end, and leave the accompanying illustration to show what
the bird is like. First, then, I may state that the Tree-Pipit, although abundantly dispersed over every
part of England and the whole of Scotland, except in the extreme north, is only a summer visitant to these
islands ; for as truly as the Swallow leaves us in the autumn for warmer climes, so does the Tree-Pipit. It
will not even await the chilly blasts of autumn before it wings its way across the seas to the coasts of
France, Spain, and Portugal, whence it proceeds by slow degrees towards the shores of the Mediterranean,
which it also crosses for the more genial latitudes of the south. Here it awaits the turning of the northern
portion of our planet towards the sun, and at the proper time profits by the warmth of that luminary and
returns to us in April or the beginning of May, when the leaves are expanding in our woodlands and the
elms in the hedgerows, when the wheat and the rye are carpeting the fields with the maiden green of their
first sheathings, when the cowslip and the buttercup bespangle the mead ; for it is then that the country is
fitted for this bird. How great a difference is observable in the habits and economies of the Tree- and the
Meadow-Pipit, species so closely assimilating in general appearance that even the ornithologist has
sometimes to look twice before he can say with certainty which is which. There are, however, characters in
their plumage, particularly the strongly marked edgings of the wing-coverts of the Tree-Pipit, which serve
to set the matter at rest; or if we wish for a more convincing proof, an examination of the claw of the
hind toe will furnish an infallible one, that of the Meadow-Pipit being long, straight, and slender, while
the Tree-Pipit’s is short, curved, and comparatively thick.

The Anthus arboreus, as its name implies, spends much of its time on trees, but only on those which
skirt open plains and border fields of corn or the grassy glades of the forest. Here the male usually sits and
pours forth his pretty simple song; but when the female is incubating, he mounts in the air, and warbles
over his strain on quivering wings as he descends to the branch whence he started, or to the ground—a
movement which is repeated again and again, as if in the exuberance of joy. The Meadow-Pipit, which, on
the other hand, is a stationary species, is one of the handiest of our little birds; for let the frost be ever so
nipping, and the cold so great as to turn the sturdiest of us away from the windy hillsides, the Meadow-
Pipit is there, a stone wall or turfy dyke being its highest resting-place.

I have purposely digressed from the more immediate subject of the present paper, in order to show that
two birds closely assimilating in size, colour, and structure, are very different in their habits and economy.
These differences have always been noticed by ornithologists, and have induced some of them to place
them in distinct genera; in the present work, however, I keep all our Pipits in the genus Anthus 5 were
I not to do so every species would have a different generic name.

Bailly, in his work on the ‘ Ornithology of Savoy,’ has given a long and somewhat graphic history of the
Tree-Pipit; but as much of his account is very similar to what I have already written, it will not be
desirable to repeat it here. In that country, as with us, the bird is a migrant, arriving in May and retiring
southwards again in August, September, and October. A few remain to breed, both in the lowlands and in
the mountains; but they do not ascend to any great height, a low temperature appearing uncongenial
to them. According to Bailly the Tree-Pipit is highly prized by epicures and “ wine-connoisseurs ” as an
article of food, on account of the delicate flavour of its flesh and its extreme fatness, which is probably due
to the abundance of food it finds among the vines and figs, to which it is doubtless attracted by the insects