202 The Tawny Pipit. 



In Great Britain most of the examples of the Tawn}' Pipit which have been 

 obtained have occurred at or near Brighton, but it has been shot as far to the 

 south as the Scilly Islands, and as far north as Bridlington, in Yorkshire. 



According to Gatke this species " visits Heligoland in ver}' small numbers ; 

 only now and again may a solitary example be met with on a fine warm afternoon 

 in May or August. Hardl}' more than three or four of the birds are shot in the 

 course of a year, though perhaps double the number, certainly not more, may 

 occur during that time." 



The adult male in spring plumage is of a lighter or darker sandy-brown 

 colour, the centres of the feathers on the upper surface being darker, excepting 

 on the rump, darkest on the crown ; a buffish-white superciliary streak ; lores 

 dark-brown; ear-coverts greyish-brown ; wing-coverts dark-brown, edged with buff; 

 flights brown, with tawny edges ; tail brown, the two outside feathers white, 

 suffused with sandy-brown ; the inner web partly brown ; the second pair brown 

 almost to the shaft : under surface buffish-white, deeper on the breast, which is 

 faintly streaked with brown ; upper mandible dark-brown, lower mandible yellowish ; 

 feet yellowish-brown ; iris dark-brown. Female similar to the male but slightly 

 smaller. After the autumn moult the colouring of both sexes is warmer. Birds 

 of the year are more tawny than adults, and have the sides of the throat and 

 breast somewhat conspicuously streaked. 



As regards the haunts of this species, Seebohm saj'S that in Greece "it seems 

 to prefer the open plains, and is very common in the almost treeless valley between 

 the Parnassus and Thermopyle." " It is especially common on the undulating 

 prairie country, half rock, and half grass and heath, between Athens and Marathon." 



Dixon ("Jottings") speaking of it in Algeria, says that it is "most abundant 

 in winter. It breeds on the northern slopes of the Atlas, and in winter does not 

 appear to go further south than the Hauts Plateaux." Of its habits, the same 

 author says : — " To look at its plumage one might almost expect to meet with it 

 only in the desert ; but in summer, at any rate, it does not frequent that sandy 

 waste, and we onl}' met with it on the elevated plateaux bej'ond Constantine and 

 in the neighbourhood of Batna and Lambessa. The road between these two latter 

 places runs through rich meadows and barle3'-fields, and abounded with Tawny 

 Pipits in abundance. I saw them only in pairs ; the}' were very tame, and often 

 allowed themselves to be almost trodden upon before the}^ would take wing. I 

 often saw them running about very quickly over the bare pieces of ground, stop- 

 ping now and then to look round to see if they were being pursued. When 

 flushed they would often fly for a little distance in a very straigh forward manner 

 (not undulating, as their usual flight is) and perch on a little tuft of higher vege- 



