richard''s pipit. 399 



believe is intended to refer to the example recorded by Mr. 

 Vigors : the other was taken near Oxford. The British 

 Museum also contains a British specimen, recently added to 

 the collection, which is said to have been killed at Bermond- 

 sey ; and Mr. W. Proctor, the curator of the Durham Uni- 

 versity Museum, informs me that he shot a specimen of this 

 bird on the 13th of February, 1832, near Howick, on the 

 Northumbrian coast, which is now in the collection of the 

 Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire. 



The habits of this species, as far as the peculiarities of so 

 rare a bird can be known, — for it is equally scarce on the 

 Continent, — are said to be very similar to those of the other 

 Pipits. It is not observed to perch, but is always on the 

 ground, where it runs with facility, waving the tail up and 

 down with a gentle airy motion, like that observed in the 

 Wagtails ; while its long hind claw, but slightly curved, 

 connects it with the Larks. So scarce is this species in 

 foreign collections, that M. Temminck appears to have seen 

 but two specimens ; examples, however, have been obtained 

 in Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. This bird was named 

 Ricardi in compliment to a very zealous amateur of ornitho- 

 logy, who first made known an example captured in Lor- 

 raine in autumn ; the bird has also been taken in Picardy. 

 M. Savi says, that three specimens only were known to him 

 as having been obtained in Italy ; and this species probably 

 inhabits the countries south of the Mediterranean from 

 whence stragglers occasionally visit the southern parts of 

 Europe. 



The note of this bird is said to be very loud, and is heard 

 at a great distance ; its food consists of various insects ; and 

 its eggs, as noticed by M. Polydore Roux, in his Ornithology 

 of Provence, have a reddish Avhite ground colour, speckled 

 with darker red and light brown ; the length ten lines and a 

 half, by seven lines and a half in breadth. 



The figure of Richard's Pipit here given Avas taken, by 



