392 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Family MOTACILLID-53. 

 Genus ANTHUS, Bechstein. 



Whether this Old World form is represented in Australia 

 by more than a single species is a point I have not satisfac- 

 torily determined; every part of its extra-tropical regions, 

 including Tasmania, is inhabited by Pipits which differ some- 

 what in size in almost every colony ; still their difference is 

 so slight that I have hitherto regarded and still consider 

 them to be mere varieties or local races of one and the same 

 species. 



Sp. 240. ANTHUS AUSTRALTS, /^>. and Ilorsf. 

 Australian Pipit. 



Anthus australis, Yig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 229. 



pallescens, Vig. and Horsf., id., p. 229. 



War-ra-joo-lon, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia. 

 Common Lark of the Colonists. 



Anthus Australis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii. pi. 73. 



The Anthus australis has all the habits and actions of its 

 European prototypes ; its note is also very similar ; when 

 flushed from the ground it rarely flies to any great distance 

 before it descends again rather abruptly, to the earth, to the 

 branch of a tree, or a small bush. 



The nest is a rather deep and compactly formed structure 

 of dried grasses ; it is placed in a hole in the ground, some- 

 times beneath the shelter of a tuft of grass, but more fre- 

 quently in a clear, open and exposed situation, the top of the 

 nest being level with the surface. The eggs, which are three 

 and sometimes four in number, are of a lengthened form, 

 being eleven lines long by seven and a half lines broad, and 

 are of a greyish white, blotched and freckled with light chest- 

 nut-brown and piu:plish grey, the latter colour appearing as if 

 beneath the surface of the shell. 



