48 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



most observers note it a fortnight later than this : 

 September 13th is his date for its departure. It is 

 fairly plentiful in all wooded districts, and is very 

 generally distributed over the ^Yhole of the county, 

 being proportionately rarer where timber is scarce. Mr. 

 W. A. Durnford says that in Furness it occurs in flocks, 

 chiefly at the migratory season. Woods, and banks in 

 their vicinity, are its favourite breeding-places ; the five 

 or six eggs (one variety among many of which very 

 much resembles those of the Wood-Lark) are laid about 

 the middle of May. Its short and little varied song is 

 chiefly uttered when, from the branch of a tree, it rises 

 a yard or two into the air, warbles its few sweet notes, 

 and then returns to almost exactly the same place again. 



EICHARD'S PIPIT. 



Anthus richardi, Yieillot. 



The only occurrence I find among published records 

 is that in Byerley's "Fauna of Liverpool," where he 

 says that the Piev. T. Staniforth informed him that he 

 had a specimen stuffed that was killed at Crosby. In 

 January, 1884, however, a Pipit was sent me for identi- 

 fication, which proved to be of this species, and which 

 the sender, Mr. J. H. Wood, of Bury, said he had shot 

 on the Wyre, not far from Fleetwood, in June or July, 

 1869. He remarks that " it was flying in and out of 

 some gorse-bushes on the banks of the river Wyre, and 

 I was struck by the peculiarity of its flight. It would 

 fly out of one bush almost ' plumb ' up into the air, and, 

 after uttering a note something like a Sky-Lark, dart 

 into the next thick bush, and remain for a few seconds." 



