ROCK-PIPIT. 247 
After the breeding-season the Rock-Pipit often wanders from its 
accustomed haunts; and in autumn especially it is often seen on the low- 
lying marshes on the coasts of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Sussex. Many 
of the birds seen in such situations are probably migrants from the high 
north, either passing our islands on their journey southwards or staying 
here for the winter. In low-lying districts their favourite haunts appear 
to be marshes and shingle-banks and the grassy portions of mud-flats. 
Early in March these birds generally forsake such places for the more 
rocky portions of the coast, where their young are reared, or they pass on 
to similar localities further north. 
The ordinary form of the adult male Rock-Pipit in breeding-plumage 
has the general colour of the upper parts olive-brown streaked, except on 
the rump, with dark brown; over the eye is a dull and indistinct buffish 
stripe ; the outermost tail-feather on each side has a broad oblique spot 
of smoke-grey on the inner web; the chin is dull white, the throat and 
remainder of the underparts are sandy buff, most pronounced on the.breast 
and shading into olive on the flanks; the throat, breast, and flanks are 
streaked with dark brown; bill dark brown, paler at the base of the lower 
mandible; legs, feet, and claws brown; irides hazel. The female does not 
differ in colour from the male. After the autumn moult the upper parts 
are much greener, and the underparts more strongly suffused with yellow. 
Birds of the year resemble adults in autumn plumage, but are more 
streaked on the flanks, a character which is still more apparent in young 
in first plumage. The smoke-coloured patch on the outermost tail-feathers 
in this species will always readily distinguish it from the Water-Pipit, in 
which this patch is pure white. 
In addition to the form the summer plumage of which has already 
been described with the streaked sandy-buff underparts, two others occa- 
sionally occur. One of these, which I found together with the typical 
form in the Varanger Fjord, has the ground-colour of the underparts almost 
pure white, possibly the effect of continuous daylight; the other, 
which is connected by a series of intermediate examples with the typical 
form, has the underparts scarcely differing from those of A. spinoletta, the 
streaks being nearly obsolete and the colour of the breast pale chestnut- 
buff. The explanation of this singular variation can scarcely be reterred to 
interbreeding, because the colour of the outer tail-feathers remains quite 
typical. It seems to me that the fully adult male of the Rock-Pipit, like 
those of its very near allies the Water-Pipit and the renusyivanian 
Pipit, has the underparts unspotted ; but from the rarity of suca examples 
in collections, I am disposed to think that the fully adult plumage is only 
attained by very old birds in exceptionally sunny climes, 
