ALAUDIN.K. 117 



89. ANTHUS CERVINUS. 

 (RED-THROATED PIPIT.) 



Motacilla cervino, Pallas, Zoogr. llosso-Asiat. i. p. 511 (1826). 



The Red-throated Pipit differs from the Japanese Alpine Pipit in 

 having conspicuous dark centres to all the feathers of the upper 

 parts ; and from the Eastern Tree-Pipit in having the belly always 

 buffj and the hind toe shorter than its claw. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, iii. pi. 136. 



The Red-throated Pipit is a rare visitor on migration in spring 

 and autumn to the Japanese Islands. I have never seen a specimen 

 from Japan, but there cannot be much doubt that it does occur there, 

 as I have one example (No. 205G) obtained by INIr. Snow on 

 Shumshu (the most northerly of the Kurile Islands) on the 7th of 

 June, 1876 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1879, p. 3i) ; a second example obtained 

 by Mr. Snow on Eturup (the most southerly but one of the same 

 group) in September; a third example (in the Pryer collection) 

 obtained by Mr. Snow on the Kurile Islands on the 29tli of July ; 

 and a fourth and fifth example (also in the Pryer collection) obtained 

 on the central group of the Loo-Choo Islands in January. 



The breeding-range of the Red-throated Pipit extends on the 

 tundras above the limit of forest-growth from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific; but in the eastern and western extremities of its range it is 

 a rare bird, which accounts for the difficulty of procuring examples 

 in Japan and the British Islands, where it only occurs on migration 

 to its winter- quarters in North-east Africa and Burma. 



ALAUDIN^. 



Sexes nearly alike ; young in first plumage (which is moulted in 

 the first autumn) spotted above and below ; first primary generally 

 very small, sometimes obsolete ; back of tarsus scutellated. 



There are about 70 species of Larks, chiefly confined to the Palse- 

 arctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental Regions. One of the Palsearctic 

 species is circumpolar, and each of the Australian, Neotropical, and 

 Nearctic Regions contains a solitary species. 



One species (possibly two) is represented in the Japanese Empire. 



