PIRAMIDIG— PITTA 727 



ated to form the genus Antlius, which has since been much broken 

 up, are now generally associated with the WAGTAILS in the Family 

 Motacillidae} Pipits, of which over 30 species have been described 

 (t/. Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. pp. 534-623), occur in almost all parts 

 of the world, even New Zealand having its peculiar species, but in 

 North America are represented by only two forms ■ — Neocorys 

 spraguii, the Prairie-Lark of the north-western plains, and AntJms 

 ludovicianus, the American Titlark, which last is very nearly allied to 

 the so-called Water-Pipit of Europe, A. spipoletta. To most English 

 readers the best-known species of Pipit is the Titlark or Meadow- 

 Pipit, A. pratemis, a bird too common to need description, and 

 abundant on pastures, moors and uncultivated districts generally ; 

 but in some localities the Tree-Pipit (to which the name Pipit seems 

 properly to belong), the A. frivialis, or A. arhcn-eus of some authors, 

 takes its place, and where it does so it generally attracts attention 

 by its loud song, which is not unlike that of a Canary-bird, but 

 usually delivered (as is the habit of most or all the Pipits) on the 

 wing and during a short circuitous flight. Another species, the 

 Rock-Lark, A. ohscurus, scarcely ever leaves the sea-coast and is 

 found almost all round the British Islands. The South African 

 genus Macronyx (Kalkoentje), remarkable for the extreme length 

 of its hind claw, is generally placed among the Pipits, but differs 

 from all the rest in its brighter coloration, which has a curious 

 resemblance to the American genus Sturnella (Icterus), though the 

 bird is certainly not allied thereto. 



PIRAMIDIG, a Creole name, according to Gosse {B. Jamaica, 

 p. 33), of Chordiles virginianus, or more properly C. minor 

 (Nightjar), being an imitation of its cry uttered during its re- 

 markable flight, which was minutely described by Osburn {Zool. 

 1860, pp. 6837-6841). 



PIRENET, said to be a local name of the Sheld-drake. 

 PIRREE, a name often given, from its cry, to a Tern. 



PITTA, from the Telugu Pitta, meaning a small Bird, latinized 

 by Vieillot in 1816 (Analyse, p. 42) as the name of a genus, and 

 since adopted by English ornithologists as the general name for a 

 group of Birds, called by the French Breves, and remarkable for their 

 great beauty.^ For a long while the Pittas were commonly sup- 



^ Pipits can be distinguished from Larks by having the hind part of the 

 " tarsus" undivided, while the Larks liave it scutellated. 



^ In Ornithology the word is first found as part of the native name, " Pon- 

 nunky pitta " of a Bird, given in 1713 by Petiver, on the authority of Buckley, 

 in the " Mantissa" to Ray's Synopsis (p. 195). This bird is the Pitta hcngalensis 

 of modern ornithologists, and is said by Jerdon (B. Ind. i. p. 503) now to 

 bear the Telugu name of Fovxt-inki, 



