The eggs number from four to six or even eight, although personally I have never seen more than seven. They are pale bluish-green, somewhat lighter than those of the Hedge Sparrow, and said to be occasionally marked with light red spots. I have never met, however, with this spotted variety.
THE MEADOW PIPIT.
The Meadow Pipit, or Titlark as the bird is frequently called, is much more abundant than the Tree Pipit. It is rather smaller in size, duller in colour, has more and smaller spots on the breast, and when hunting for food has a habit of making little periodical rushes after insects in a more wagtail-like manner than its relative.
This species is partial to open pastures, and bent and heather-clad moorland districts, and is very abundant on the Fells in the North of England, where I can safely say I have found hundreds of nests during the course of my life. I have met with it breeding quite commonly as low down as the Norfolk Broad district and as high up as the most elevated mountain tops I have ever visited in the Highlands.
Its song is somewhat shrill, and not so musical as that of the Tree Pipit. It is uttered on the wing, the bird rising to a height of thirty or forty feet in order to deliver it; also often from a stone wall, stunted bush, or boulder.
The alarm note of this species when flushed sounds like peep, peep, and that of distress when disturbed at the nest trit, trit. Call note: zeeah, zeeah.
YOUNG MEADOW PIPIT PHOTOGRAPHED
WHILST SHELTERING BEHIND A STONE
DURING A HIGHLAND STORM.