JAPANESE PIPIT 39 



30778, an immature female), the first in North America, has already been recorded 

 (Swarth, 192S, p. 250). Upper mandible brown; lower mandible brown, basal 

 half brownish yellow ; iris brown ; tarsus and toes yellowish brown. 



Swarth (1928), in an earlier paper, reports the taking of this speci- 

 men and points out that a previous published record of the Japanese 

 pipit in the Western Hemisphere is erroneous. He says : "There is a 

 prior record for this bird in North America, based upon the capture 

 of one on St. Paul Island, in the Pribilof group, on August 29, 1916. 

 That specimen is in the United States National Museum, and being 

 examined by Dr. Wetmore and Mr. Riley during their scrutiny of the 

 bird here recorded, it proved to be not japonicus but a somewhat unusu- 

 ally colored example of Anthus 8inn6letta rubescens. The present is 

 therefore the first recorded occurrence of the Japanese Pipit within the 

 confines of the A. O. U. Check-List." Swarth refers to the record of 

 the St. Paul Island bird (G. Dallas Hanna, 1920) and to its refutation 

 (Riley and Wetmore, 1928). 



The Japanese pipit breeds far to the north in the Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere — eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, and the Kurile Islands. It is 

 closely related in appearance and habits to the American pipit. Its 

 breeding grounds lie farther westward than our bird's, extending in 

 Siberia as far west as the Lena River, while the western limit of the 

 breeding range of the American pipit reaches only the northeast 

 corner of Siberia. 



Little has been published concerning the Japanese pipit. J. D. D. 

 La Touche (1930), writing of the bird in eastern China, says: 



This is a much smaller and darker bird than Blakiston's Pipit. It has a loud 

 double note of alarm, different from the single 'pee' of the Red-throated Pipit. It 

 occurs in flocks in winter on the marshes and wet fields of Soutb-East China of 

 the Lower Yangtse, and in spring is found in green corn at Chinkiaug. It moults 

 in April in the latter locality, and may be seen there until about the middle of 

 May and until the end of that month at Cbinwangtao. It is purely a marsh and 

 wet-field or meadow bird. * * * This Pipit appears to only straggle down 

 to India in winter, but it is common in the Shan States and other parts of Burma 

 and has also, according to Baker, been taken in other Indo-Burmese countries. 

 ♦ * * The bird was originally described from Japan, and Dr. Hartert gives 

 Kamtschatka, East Siberia, and the Kirile Is. as breeding-range, Japan being only 

 part of the winter-quarters. The nidification is apparently unknown. 



La Touche (1920) remarks further: "It migrates in autumn in 

 company with the Wagtails and Swallows, many flocks of which fly by 

 in late August and September. I have seen it in the marshes in Octo- 

 ber until the 25th of that month. The first arrivals in spring are 

 still in winter dress but soon assume the summer plumage, dark ashy- 

 grey, upper parts obscurely spotted, and huffish vinous under parts with 

 a few drop-like spots on the breast and flanks." 



A handlist of Japanese birds (Ornithological Society of Japan, 

 1932) gives the island of Sakhalin as a breeding ground of the 

 Japanese pipit. 



