330 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



and one Sparrowhawk, which had just slain and was 

 devouring an unfortunate Sparrow. 



He also distinctly saw two of the Eed-throated Pipits 

 perch on a small tree and sit freely along the palings, 

 which is doubly interesting at present to us, as we are 

 inclined to think that the Pipits we shot before, perching 

 freely on trees, are the immature birds of this species, and 

 not Meadow Pipits, as we at first supposed. The habit 

 being connnon to the Ked-throated Pipit and our (tem- 

 porarily named) A. arborensis is in favour of their being 

 of the same species, not to speak of the measurements 

 corresponding (except in so far as immature birds would 

 differ from adult). Both are larger than typical speci- 

 mens of the Meadow Pipit, which we have also shot 

 here, and measured. Or it is also possible that the 

 A. arborensis may still be in winter plumage, but this 

 would not alone be sufhcient to account for their going 

 in flocks separately and keeping — as they generally, 

 though not always, do —apart from the Red-throated 

 birds. 



On examination of our series of Pipits — Eed-throated 

 and A. arborensis — to a certain extent we find them 

 running into one another. The adult birds are much 

 redder on the breast and throat, with fewest spots, and 

 the fav^^n-colour more or less extends over the belly and 

 under-tail-coverts. In these oldest, fullest-plumaged 

 birds there is no, or scarcely any, trace of a moustachial 

 line of spots. In what we take to be slightly less mature 

 birds there are considerably more spots, and in some a 

 decided line of moustachial spots, which, in still less 

 mature examples, have the breast thichhj spotted, and 

 only a small patch of fawn on the throat, becomes 

 strongly marked. 



Now comes A. arborensis. In three of the specimens 

 we have obtained there is a shght but still distinct shade 



