TAWNY PIPIT 



543 



Indo-Malay countries, but likewise, although in a more limited degree, 

 to eastern Europe, whence a certain number of individuals wander as 

 far west as the British Isles. Up to the close of last century about 

 half-a-hundred instances of the occurrence of the species in England 

 had been recorded, and one was taken in Scotland in 1880. Up to 

 1907, when a specimen was taken near Dublin, the species was 

 unknown in Ireland. Among later occurrences, it may be noted that 

 an example was taken in Wales in 1901, and a second in Cornwall 

 in 1904. 



_ _,. .^ A rarer and much more local visitor to the British 



Tawny Pipit ^ , • , • • , r , • 



. . . Isles IS the tawny pipit, so named from the circum- 



. X stance that in the adult the breast and flanks are 

 devoid of the spotting so characteristic of pipits in 

 general, while the wing-coverts have broad sandy margins, and the 

 general hue of the upper- 

 parts is tawny, tinged 

 with grey and streaked 

 on the crown of the 

 head and the fore part 

 of the back with a 

 darker shade; the lower 

 surface being whitish 

 with a tinge of buff on 

 the breast and flanks. 

 Hens differ by the pres- 

 ence of slight dark 

 streaks on the sides of 

 the head. During 



winter a more conspicu- 

 ously tawny hue per- 

 vades the entire plum- 

 age ; this being also 

 specially noticeable in 



young birds, which likewise display dusky spots on the head and chest. 

 The total length is just over 6 inches. 



Although not strictly a desert-bird, the tawny pipit is a frequenter 

 of open and dry sandy country rather than moister districts, and 

 normally ranges in summer from Siberia and Turkestan to central and 

 southern Europe, while in winter it migrates to north-western India 

 and northern Africa, occasionally travelling far south in the latter 



THE ROWLAND WARD STUDfOS 



TAVVNV I'lI'IT. 



