The male Redstart has a short but soft and very sweet song, much resembling that of the Pied Flycatcher. Whilst staying out all night making observations, both in South Wales and the North of England, I have heard it very late in the evening and very early in the morning. It is oft repeated, and the singer borrows notes from many other feathered vocalists, such as the Swallow, Blackbird, Whitethroat, and Nightingale. [Illustration: MALE REDSTART WITH FOOD FOR YOUNG.] The call note of this species sounds something like _wee-tit-tit_. [Illustration: REDSTART’S NEST AND EGGS BENEATH A STONE ON THE GROUND. THE STONE WAS LIFTED TO SHOW NEST AND EGGS.] The nest is situated in a hole in a tree or stone wall, sometimes under a stone partly buried in the ground, where a Wheatear might be expected to make her home, as in the case of the one figured in our illustration on page 195. It is composed of dry grass, dead leaves, and rootlets, and lined with hair and feathers. 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. [Illustration: landscape] =THE MEADOW PIPIT.= [Illustration: cluster of flowers] 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_. [Illustration: YOUNG MEADOW PIPIT PHOTOGRAPHED WHILST SHELTERING BEHIND A STONE DURING A HIGHLAND STORM.] The nest is generally built on a bank and hidden by some overhanging tuft of herbage, or amongst heather. I have, however, found two in holes amongst rough stones where a Wheatear might have been expected to breed. The structure is composed of bents, bits of fine dead grass, and horsehair, but the last-named article is frequently absent altogether. [Illustration: ADULT MEADOW PIPIT.]