224 BRITISH BIRDS. 
ANTHUS PRATENSIS. 
MEADOW-PIPIT. 
(Prats 14.) 
Alauda pratensis, Briss, Orn. ili. p. 848 (1760); Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 287 (1766) ; et 
auctorum plurimorum— Latham, (Temminck), (Naumann), (Degland § Gerbe), 
(Bonaparte), (Salwadort), (Dresser), (Newton), &c. 
Anthus pratensis (Briss.), Bechst. Orn. Taschenb, iii. p. 564 (1812). 
Spipola pratensis (Briss.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. Se. Brit. Mus. p. 21 (1816). 
Alauda sepiaria, Briss. apud Steph. Shaw's Gen. Zool. x. p. 542 (1817). 
Leimoniptera pratensis (Briss.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 89 (1829). 
Anthus tristis, Baill. Mém. de la Soc. @émul. d Abbev, p. 14 (1838). 
Anthus communis, Blyth, White’s Nat. Hist. Selborne, p. 261 (1850). 
The Meadow-Pipit is common throughout the British Islands, including 
the Channel Islands, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Hebrides, and 
St. Kilda, in all of which it is more or less a resident, merely shifting its 
quarters in winter from the mountains to the low-lyimg districts. It is 
also a very common bird on the Faroes and Iceland, and a single example 
has been met with in Greenland. 
The Meadow-Pipit appears to be strictly confined to the western portion 
of the Palearctic Region from Iceland to the Ural Mountains in the north, 
and from Morocco to Nubia, Asia Minor, and Palestine in the south. In 
North Europe it is principally known as a summer visitor, but a few 
remain during winter in Germany. In the south of France, as with us, 
it is a resident; but in Spain, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and 
North Africa it is a winter visitor, a few only remaining to breed in the 
mountains. It has been recorded from Turkestan, and even from India 
and Siam; but it seems probable that in all these cases the Red-throated 
Pipit in winter plumage has been mistaken for it. 
The Meadow-Pipit is very nearly allied to the Tree-Pipit ; and Severtzow 
says that on the mountains of Turkestan a Pipit breeds which is inter- 
mediate between them. In connexion with this it may be remarked that 
Harvie-Brown and I were surprised to find that in North-east Russia the 
Meadow-Pipit was so much more arboreal in its habits than it is in this 
country. The Meadow-Pipit is still more nearly allied to the Red-throated 
Pipit, and examples in winter plumage are difficult to determine. The 
few distinctive characters are carefully pointed out in the description of 
the bird. It is notknown that intermediate forms between the two last- 
mentioned species occur. There are resident Pipits both on the Canaries and 
Madeira; those from the latter island are a dwarf form of the Meadow-Pipit, 
measuring only from 2°3 to 2°6 inch in length of wing, that of the Meadow- 
