ANTHUS. 217 
Genus ANTHUS. 
Linneus and some of the other earlier ornithologists included 
the Pipits amongst the Larks in the genus Alauda. Bechstein appears 
to have been the first writer who separated them from this genus. In 
the second edition of his ‘ Naturgeschichte Deutschlands’ (published in 
1807), vol. mi. p. 704, he established the genus Anthus, placing the 
Meadow-Pipit as the first species of his new genus. This bird has con- 
sequently been generally accepted as the type. 
There are no structural characters by which the Pipits may be distin- 
guished from the Wagtails, and even in the pattern of colour they have 
many characters in common. In both genera the bills are slender and 
insectivorous. The Wagtails generally have dark feet, and the Pipits pale 
feet ; but in both genera the hind claw is sometimes short and much 
curved, and sometimes long and only slightly curved. The general colour 
of the upper parts varies in the Wagtails from brownish green to slate- 
grey and black, whilst in the Pipits it is always brown of some shade, 
either greenish or sandy. In the Pipits the head is generally of the same 
colour as the back, and the feathers of both have more or less conspicuous 
dark centres; whilst in the Wagtails the head is often quite different in 
colour from the back, but each feather of both is uniform in colour. The 
pattern of colour of the wing is nearly the same in both genera. The 
Pipits have the quill-feathers a uniform brown, without the white bases 
which are often found in the Wagtails; but in both genera the outside 
webs have narrow pale edges and the inside webs broad pale edges. In 
both genera the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries are darker than 
the quills, the median wing-coverts have pale tips, and the greater wing- 
coverts and innermost secondaries pale margins to the outside webs. 
In both genera the two centre tail-feathers are generally concolorous 
with the back, and the rest very dark brown, with the exception of 
the two outermost on each side, which are almost wholly white in 
the Wagtails, but vary much in this respect in the Pipits. The under- 
parts of the Wagtails are either white or yellow, shading into brown or 
grey on the flanks, with black on the throat or breast in some species, 
but spotted on these parts only in the young; whilst the underparts 
of the Pipits are uniform light or dark buff, darkest on the flanks, 
oceasionally without spots in the adult, but often streaked on the sides of 
the throat and across the breast and along the flanks in the adult, and 
