MOTACILLID^. 



139 



''/ fe'^^f^ 



RICHARD'S PIPIT. 



Anthus richardi, Vieillot. 



This large Pipit, distinguishable by its length of limb and 

 extremely long hind claw, is an Eastern species which visits Western 

 Europe irregularly on migration, and generally in autumn. At least 

 sixty occurrences are on record in Great Britain — but none in Ireland 

 — since 1824, when Vigors announced the bird as a visitor to our 

 shores. The majority of these have been in the southern districts 

 of England, especially on the Sussex coast ; but six specimens have 

 been obtained near Yarmouth in Norfolk, three in Northumberland, 

 one in Shropshire, one — in summer — near Fleetwood in Lancashire, 

 two in Cumberland, two in Warwickshire, and one in Kent. In 

 Scotland the only authenticated example is one obtained by Mr. 

 J. G. Millais, near Dunkeld, on August 2nd 1880. 



It is only as a rare visitor that Richard's Pipit has been met with 

 in the southern districts of Norway and Sweden ; but on Borkum, 

 and along the coasts of Holland, Belgium and France, it is not 

 so infrequent on migration, while on Heligoland it is abundant in 

 autumn and not unknown in spring. In Central Europe it is rare, 

 though in the south of France, especially in Provence, it is well 

 known ; near Malaga and throughout the south of Spain it is 

 in some years tolerably common from November to April ; while it 

 occurs irregularly in Italy and in the basin of the Mediterranean, 

 occasionally visiting North Africa. Its usual breeding-grounds are 

 not to be found west of Turkestan ; in the valley of the Yenesei 



