MOTACILLID/E. 



141 



THE WATER-PIPIT. 



Anthus spipoletta (Linnceus). 



The true Water-Pipit is an unusual visitor to England ; its 

 occurrences having been estimated as more frequent than was really 

 the case, owing to a confusion with the Scandinavian form of the 

 Rock-Pipit, which occasionally visits us. The first authenticated 

 examples of the Water-Pipit were recorded by Mr. Pratt of Brighton, 

 in 1864, when one killed near that town, and another taken near 

 Worthing, were sent to Gould for identification ; while subsequently 

 three have been obtained at Shoreham and one at Lancing, on 

 the spring and autumn migrations. On April 5th 1895, Mr. G. H. 

 Caton Haigh shot one at Tetney, Lincolnshire, and on April 5th 

 1897 he obtained another at the mouth of the Glaslyn, Carnarvon- 

 shire. Both these specimens were exhibited at meetings of the 

 British Ornithologists' Club. 



During the breeding-season the Water-Pipit is to be found on 

 the Alps and the mountain ranges of Germany and Central Europe, 

 the Pyrenees, and some of the higher regions in the Spanish 

 Peninsula, even in the extreme south. Two examples are said to 

 have been obtained on Jan Mayen Island early in June by the 



