. Natural history. Zoology. IVA G TAILS— CREEPERS. 365. Fig. 103.—The Pied Wagtail QUotadlla lugubrii;). amelia', has a beautiful pink The pipits are generally birds of sombre brown coloration, more like that of the larks. They build their nests on the ground, generally under some sheltered portion of a bank. The true pipits (Anthus) are thirty-five in number, and are found in almost every part of the world. The common meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) is one well-known species, and the tree-pipit (A. trivialis) is another. The eggs of these two pipits are much more richly coloured than those of
. Natural history. Zoology. IVA G TAILS— CREEPERS. 365. Fig. 103.—The Pied Wagtail QUotadlla lugubrii;). amelia', has a beautiful pink The pipits are generally birds of sombre brown coloration, more like that of the larks. They build their nests on the ground, generally under some sheltered portion of a bank. The true pipits (Anthus) are thirty-five in number, and are found in almost every part of the world. The common meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis) is one well-known species, and the tree-pipit (A. trivialis) is another. The eggs of these two pipits are much more richly coloured than those of wagtails, and are often of a pinkish-red or purplish colour, with darker spots and blotches. The brightest of the pipits are the members of the African genera Macronyx and Tmetothy- lacus, the species of Macronyx having yellow breasts, while one species, M. breast. The wagtails arc divisible into two sections, the "water" wagtails and the "field " wagtails, the latter being less frequenters of the river banks than of the inland pastures. The most thoroughly river-haunting species in our own islands is the grey wagtail {Motacilla melanope), while the pied wagtail (M. luguhris) is a typical "water "-wagtail, just as Ray's wagtail ('If. cximpestris) is a typical. " field "-wagtail. All these little birds, as well as the pipits, feed on insects, which they catch on the wing or on the ground, and they all have a graceful mode of running and walking, keeping up the whole time a con- stant up-and-down waving of the tail. The Mniotiltidce embrace a number of small warblers, entirely confined to the American region, where they fulfil the same functions as our own warblers (Sylviidce) of the Eastern Hemisphere, feeding on insects. They differ, however, from the Sylviidcn in having nine priinaries, nor is there any proof that the MniotilUdoi have a double moult, in autumn and again in spring, like the warblers of the Old World. The principal ge
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