THE PIPITS. I15 



length, 6*6 inches; oilmen, 0*55 ; wing, 3-55 ; tail, 275 ; tar- 

 sus, 0-95. 



Winter Plumage. — Like the summer plumage, but without the 

 reddish colour on the under surface, which is whitish with a 

 brown moustachial line on each side of the throat ; the fore- 

 neck, chest, and breast spotted with brown, less distinct on the 

 sides of the body and flanks j light pattern on outer tail-feather 

 white, the penultimate feather with a conspicuous white tip. 



Note. — The birds which visit England are always likely to be in win- 

 ter plumage or to be immature birds. From the young of the Tawny- 

 Pipit they can be told by the streaks on the flanks, which are uniform in the 

 latter bird. From the Meadow-Pipit they can be distinguished by having 

 the end of the penultimate feathers brown along the outer web ; in the 

 Meadow-Pipit this part of the feather is white. From the Rock-Pipit, 

 with which the Water-Pipit is most easily confounded, it can be recognised 

 by having the light part of the outer tail-feather white, instead of smoky- 

 brown, as it is in A. obscurus. 



Range in Great Britain. — An accidental visitor in autumn and 

 spring, four specimens having been recorded, all from the 

 vicinity of Brighton. One was killed there in 1864, another 

 near Worthing in the same year, a third near Shoreham in 

 October, 1868, and a fourth near Lancing in March, 1877. 



Range outside the British Islands. — An inhabitant of the moun- 

 tain regions of Central and Southern Europe, throughout Cen- 

 tral Asia to the Altai Mountains, occurring also in the high 

 ranges of Persia and Baluchistan. A smaller race, named 

 Anthus blakistoni, is found in Eastern Siberia and China. 



Habits. — From its mountain-loving propensities, Mr. Seebohm 

 prefers to call this species the " Alpine " Pipit, as it frequents 

 only the higher mountain slopes above the forest growth during 

 the breeding season, visiting the lowlands in the winter. He 

 has given a good account of the nesting of the species in the 

 Engadine, where he found it on the higher mountains, living 

 in the same districts as the Marmot, " where the gentle ist of 

 the Fipit contrasts with the loud mee-ik of the latter, these 

 being almost the only signs of animal life in these regions." 

 The ways of the species are very similar to those of the 

 Meadow-Pipit, its food consisting of insects, small worms and 

 land-shells, but it is said to eat seeds in winter, when insect 

 life fails. Like other Pipits, it runs actively along the ground, 



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