588 MOTACILLID^. 



of rock at various elevations on the seaward face of a clilf, 

 often choosing, in accordance with the nature of the locality, 

 a recess under a stone, a tuft of grass, moss or other plants 

 characteristic of a maritime situation, to afford additional 

 shelter. The nest is made up of several sorts of dry grasses 

 mixed sometimes with seaweeds, and is lined with finer 

 materials of the same kind together with some hair when it 

 can be got. The eggs are four or five in number, variable in 

 colour, presenting two types — one reddish-brown, the other 

 olive, but with many intermediate phases : the ground is 

 french-white, sometimes with a decidedly green tinge, and is 

 usually closely mottled or suffused and at times marbled with 

 darker markings of some shade of reddish-brown, olive or 

 brownish-grey. The eggs measure from 'SO to '78 by from 

 •G7 to "61 in. There are commonly two broods in the season 

 and the young of the first are hatched early in spring. 



The Rock-Pipit is a constant inhabitant of nearly all the 

 shores of the United Kingdom, breeding in the manner just 

 descrilted along the whole coast-line of England with the 

 remarkable exception of that part which lies between the 

 Thames and the Humber, where it would seem to occur 

 only on passage ; for though resident as a species it is, like 

 so many of our birds, migratory as an individual. In Scot- 

 land and Ireland however no such exception is known, and it 

 is found commonly everywhere and at all seasons on their 

 coasts as well as on those of their adjacent and out-lying 

 islands, even to St. Kilda and Shetland. It is also abundant 

 in the Fferoes, but is not known in Iceland or Greenland. 



On the European continent, the distribution of our Rock- 

 Pipit is not very easily traced, and the fact must be recorded 

 that examples from most parts of Scandinavia, and probably 

 from the shores of the Baltic generally, present a rufous or 

 vinous colouring on the breast, inducing some ornithologists 

 to regard them as forming a distinct species to which the 

 name of Antlius riqjestris, conferred in 1817 by Prof, Nilsson 

 (Orn. Svec, i, p. 245), should perhaps be applied. These ruddy 

 birds, as might be expected, occasionally visit England and 

 have most likely given rise to the confusion existing in years 



