RICHARD’S PIPIT. 235 
bounded on every side by the forest. These oases of grass in the boundless 
forest are the paradise of Richard’s Pipit. As I wandered away from the 
town this bird became more common. I found them difficult to shoot 
on the ground, as they ran about in the grass; but I soon obtained as 
many examples as I wanted as they hovered in the air, almost like the 
Kestrel. 
It is absolutely impossible to express the note of this bird on paper; 
but some idea of it may be formed by trying to whistle the Italian word 
degli welodiously and loudly. 
Dybowsky found them equally common on the “plateaux near Lake 
Baikal, at an elevation of 5000 feet above the level of the sea. They arrive 
about the middle of May, and build their nests on the ground in the grass. 
They usually choose a hollow in the meadows, such as the footprint in the 
soft earth of a cow or a horse. ‘The first nest is made in the first half of 
June; and frequently a second brood is reared, the eggs being laid in the 
second half of July. The nests are said io be very difficult to find. ~ The 
male keeps watch, and on the approach of danger he gives the alarm to 
the female, who leaves the nest and runs along the ground for some dis- 
tance, when she rises and joins the male in endeavouring to entice the 
intruder from the nest with anxious cries. If their little manceuvres are 
successful the female drops to the ground and runs back to the nest 
through the grass. In this district the nest of Richard’s Pipit is the one 
usually selected by the Cuckoo in which to deposit her egg. They leave 
for their winter-quarters late in September. 
Prjevalsky met with Richard’s Pipit’ breeding on the steppes of Eastern 
Mongolia, on the north-west frontier of China. He describes it as 
tolerably abundant from the end of April till the beginning of September, 
and notices that it avoided the tall and thick grass of the marshes and 
frequented the wet grassy land sprinkled over with bushes. He states 
that, when rising in the air, its movements are similar to those of the 
Meadow-Pipit. 
Richard’s Pipit was met with during the breeding-season on the plateaux 
of Eastern Turkestan by my friend Dr. Scully, whose careful bird-work 
stands out in marked contrast to so much of our recent slipshod ornitho- 
logical literature*. He found this bird near Yarkand, in June, frequenting 
moist ground covered with short grass, and observed young birds at the 
end of July. He describes its note as it rises from the ground as a sweet 
soft twitter, and also notices the shyness of the bird. 
* The gold medal for the best example of slipshod literature must be awarded to the 
volume popularly known as the ‘ Ibis List of British Birds,’ which bristles with errors on 
almost every page. It is difficult to say which part of the work is the worst. No sort of 
judgment has been exercised in the selection of species to be included, and birds are 
admitted or rejected in the most arbitrary manner. The nomenclature adopted follows 
