RED-THROATED PIPIT 51 



more times, with variations, and sometimes linked up with minor 

 warblings or twittering passages. While it is useful to attempt such 

 a necessarily rather prosaic analysis for descriptive and comparative 

 purposes, it conveys little of the general quality of the song. Miss 

 Haviland's description of the bird's "glorious parachute from the 

 upper air to the accompaniment of a rain of melody" seems to the 

 writer rather highly colored, but the song of a good performer is musi- 

 cal, lively, and pleasing, with some rich and rather canarylike notes, 

 and these qualities tend to be enhanced for the hearer in the solitudes 

 where the song is often heard. 



Field marks. — The red-throated pipit resembles the meadow pipit, 

 previously described, much more than it does the American pipit; 

 that is to say, it is a distinctly smaller and much more boldly marked 

 bird, with broad black centers to the feathers of the upperparts and 

 prominent black streaks on the breast and flanks. To an experienced 

 European observer it is perhaps even more like the tree pipit {Anthus 

 trivialis), but as that species and the meadow pipit are themselves 

 very much alike this refinement need not concern us here. The red- 

 throated pipit, then, is a rather small pipit with the characteristics 

 just mentioned and in spring and summer is easily distinguished from 

 any other by the feature that gives it its name. It must be stressed, 

 however, that this is neither a sharply defined bib nor of a strong 

 red. It is a pale rusty red or rufous tint over the throat and face, 

 generally distinctive enough at fairly close range but varying in its 

 intensity and least developed in some females. In autumn and winter 

 this coloring is lost or much reduced, and there is then little to dif- 

 ferentiate it from the meadow pipit except that it is rather more boldly 

 marked above and that the ground color of the upperparts is a 

 warmer brown without the tendency to grayish or greenish shades 

 that so many, but not all, meadow pipits show. About the only really 

 clear-cut difference is that the broad black streaking of the back ex- 

 tends over the rump and upper tail coverts, whereas these parts are 

 practically uniform and unstreaked in the meadow pipit. Obviously 

 this is a difficult character to be sure of in the field, though not im- 

 possible if a really good and close view can be obtained. Fortunately, 

 however, a far better field character is provided by the note, which is 

 quite different from that of any of the other pipits, Anthus spinoletta 

 included, and should at once attract the attention of anyone with a 

 fair ear for bird calls. It is described under "Voice." 



Fall and lointer. — In winter quarters the species shows a marked 

 attachment to wet localities, such as damp or partially flooded grass- 

 lands, borders of rivers and lakes, marshes, and wet cultivation, though 

 it may be observed more rarely on dry and even arid ground, includ- 

 ing coastal sand dunes and the borders of deserts. As a migrant it is 

 generally gregarious in habits. 



