ANTHUS PRATENSIS.

Meadow-Pipit, or Titlark.

Alauda pratensis, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p: 287.
campestris, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 495.
Anthus pratensis, Bechst. Naturg. Deutsch., tom. iii. p. 732, tab. 36. fig. 2.
Alauda sepiaria, Brehm.
Anthus sepiarius, Vieill.
Leimoniptera pratensis, Kaup.

 

Tus Titlark is distinguished by four very opposite features—the plainness of its plumage, its general
dispersion, the tameness of its disposition, and by the circumstance of its being preeminently the foster-
parent of the Cuckoo. As to its distribution, it is so general that it may be said to be everywhere, but
more particularly in those parts which have a tendency to humidity—the salt flats of the sea-shore,
the watery meadows of our inland valleys and undrained lands, the highland glens, and the crowns of
mountains, from the Peak of Derbyshire to the Grampians. The maid who gathers a handful of cowslips
in our sunny meads, and the tourist who breasts the wind, sleet, and rain on the top of Snowdon,
equally flush this little bird from under their feet, and whenever this occurs it merely flits off to the distance
of a few yards, utters its short peep-peep, and pitches again into the grass. When my thoughts are directed
to the Cuckoo and its mysterious ways, I feel that I know little more respecting it than that it is a parasite,
and depends upon other birds for the rearing of its progeny. But how strange is it that it should select so
frail a creature as the Meadow-Pipit in preference to most other birds for this purpose. What a task it
must be for this little insect-eater to supply the demands and rear the young of so large a bird as the
Cuckoo, which is twenty times its own weight, and with a mouth sufficiently large to engulf the head and
body of the bird which brings it food! yet so it is.

In point of structure this delicately formed species is allied to the Yellow Wagtails (genus Budytes). Like
them, it runs nimbly over the grass and among the clods of earth ; like them, also, it makes a similar move-
ment with the tail; on the other hand, in the colouring and the character of its plumage, it offers an alliance
to the true Larks. In its mode of nesting and in the colouring of its eggs it may be said to be intermediate
between the two.

To say that the Titlark has no song would be untrue, at the same time it is only an apology when com-
pared with that of the Skylark. Its mode of rising and singing in the air in the exuberance of its feelings
during the pairing and breeding-season is also a very feeble representation of the actions of that bird. ‘The
song of the male,” says Macgillivray, ‘‘is composed of a series of sharp modulated notes, which it utters on
wing, first ascending silently, or emitting its usual cheep, to the height of about twenty yards, and then
descending with expanded wings and tail. Sometimes also it sings when perched on a stone or crag. Its
song may be heard from the middle of April to the end of July.”

The Titlark is a constant resident with us; and although I have spoken of its frequenting the summits of
our highest mountains, it is only in open weather that it is found in such situations ; for, unlike the Ptar-
migan, which burrows in the snow when those elevated regions are covered with the white fleece, the Titlark
must then descend to the running springs and rills of the mountain-side, or change its residence to the
low lands, or even to the sea-shore ; and if the weather be unusually severe, to a more distant part, where,
the temperature being higher, it can still find food. It soon returns, however, to the drear heathery land ;
for there, in the company of the Grouse and the Plover, it is more at home.

The sexes are so much alike that it is impossible to say offhand which is a male and which is a female
of any two birds that may have been shot. Fresh-moulted specimens are brighter, and have a yellower
tinge of green than those whose feathers have been carried for a long time; still there is little difference
observable among specimens procured at any season. The long, straight, and finely-formed hind claw
indicates that the ground is the Titlark’s natural province; and accordingly it is seldom seen to perch,
except on the top of a stone or the wall of a dyke.

The distribution of the Titlark over other countries is considerable. It is a common bird in Iceland, and
is stated to have occurred in Greenland. Its range extends to the extreme limit of northern Europe; and
Mr. Wolley states that it is as common in some parts of Lapland as in England. In all countries lying
southward, as far as Algeria, it is as frequently to be met with as in the British Islands. It also
doubtless occurs in Eastern Asia; but I question whether it is ever found in India, and I fear I must
have misled Mr. Yarrell when I stated that I had seen specimens from thence. Temminck includes it