44 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



have taken the eggs. Dybowsky even states that the 

 nest is usually made in a hollow in the ground such as 

 the footprint of a cow or horse. The nest, he says, is 

 very hard to find, the male keeping watch and alarming 

 the sitting female, who leaves the nest and runs along 

 the ground in a Lark-like manner for some distance ere 

 flying up to join her mate, when both endeavour to 

 decoy the intruder away from the spot with anxious 

 notes. The Cuckoo is said by this naturalist usually to 

 select the nest of Richard's Pipit in this locality. There 

 can be Httle doubt that the nest does not differ in any 

 important respect from those of allied species. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of Richard's Pipit are from four to six in 

 number, five being the usual clutch. They vary in 

 ground colour from pale greenish-white to white suffused 

 with brownish-pink, sprinkled and dusted over the 

 entire surface with olive-brown or reddish-brown, and 

 with indistinct underlying markings of gray. Two 

 fairly distinct types are noticeable, the green-brown 

 spotting being usually correlated with the greenish-white 

 ground ; and the red-brown spotting with the brownish- 

 pink ground. Average measurement, '%6 inch in length 

 by '68 inch in breadth. Incubation is performed by the 

 female, but the duration of the period is unknown. 



Diagnostic characters: The size, dusted char- 

 acter of the markings, and the locality of -the eggs serve 

 to distinguish them from those of the Rock Pipit, with 

 which perhaps they are most Hkely to be confused. 



