(_Anthus pensilvanicus_) Wagtail family
_Called also_: TITLARK; BROWN OR RED LARK
_Length_--6.38 to 7 inches. About the size of a sparrow.
_Male and Female_--Upper parts brown; wings and tail dark
olive-brown; the wing coverts tipped with buff or whitish, and
ends of outer tail feathers white, conspicuous in flight.
White or yellowish eye-ring, and line above the eye.
Underneath light buff brown, with spots on breast and sides,
the under parts being washed with brown of various shades.
Feet brown. Hind toe-nail as long as or longer than the toe.
_Range_--North America at large. Winters south of Virginia to
Mexico and beyond.
_Migrations_--April. October or November. Common in the United
States, chiefly during the migrations.
The color of this bird varies slightly with age and sex, the under
parts ranging from white through pale rosy brown to a reddish tinge;
but at any season, and under all circumstances, the pipit is a
distinctly brown bird, resembling the water thrushes not in plumage
only, but in the comical tail waggings and jerkings that alone are
sufficient to identify it. However the books may tell us the bird is a
wagtail, it certainly possesses two strong characteristics of true
larks: it is a walker, delighting in walking or running, never hopping
over the ground, and it has the angelic habit of singing as it flies.
During the migrations the pipits are abundant in salt marshes or open
stretches of country inland, that, with lark-like preference, they
choose for feeding grounds. When flushed, all the flock rise together
with uncertain flight, hovering and wheeling about the place, calling
down _dee-dee_, _dee-dee_ above your head until you have passed on
your way, then promptly returning to the spot from whence they were
disturbed. Along the roadsides and pastures, where two or three birds
are frequently seen together, they are too often mistaken for the
vesper sparrows because of their similar size and coloring, but their
easy, graceful walk should distinguish them at once from the hopping
sparrow. They often run to get ahead of some one in the lane, but
rarely fly if they can help it, and then scarcely higher than a
fence-rail. Early in summer they are off for the mountains in the
north. Labrador is their chosen nesting ground, and they are said to
place their grassy nest, lined with lichens or moss, flat upon the
ground--still another lark trait. Their eggs are chocolate-brown
scratched with black.