PIRAMIDIG—PITTA 727 
ated to form the genus Anthus, which has since been much broken 
up, are now generally associated with the WAGTAILS in the Family 
Motacillide.  Pipits, of which over 30 species have been described 
(cf. Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. x. pp. 534-623), occur in almost all parts 
of the world, even New Zealand having its peculiar species, but in 
North America are represented by only two forms — Neocorys 
spraguit, the Prairie-Lark of the north-western plains, and Anthus 
ludovicianus, the American Titlark, which last is very nearly allied to 
the so-called Water-Pipit of Europe, 4. spipoletta. To most English 
readers the best-known species of Pipit is the TIrLARK or Meadow- 
Pipit, 4. pratensis, a bird too common to need description, and 
abundant on pastures, moors and uncultivated districts generally ; 
but in some localities the Tree-Pipit (to which the name Pipit seems 
properly to belong), the A. trivialis, or A. arboreus of some authors, 
takes its place, and where it does so it generally attracts attention 
by its loud song, which is not unlike that of a Canary-bird, but 
usually delivered (as is the habit of most or all the Pipits) on the 
wing and during a short circuitous flight. Another species, the 
Rock-Lark, A. obscurus, scarcely ever leaves the sea-coast and is 
found almost all round the British Islands. The South African 
genus Macronyz (KALKOENTJE), remarkable for the extreme length 
of its hind claw, is generally placed among the Pipits, but differs 
from all the rest in its brighter coloration, which has a curious 
resemblance to the American genus Sturnella (ICrERUS), though the 
bird is certainly not allied thereto. 
PIRAMIDIG, a Creole name, according to Gosse (B. Jamaica, 
p. 33), of Chordiles virginianus, or more properly C. minor 
(NIGHTJAR), being an imitation of its cry uttered during its re- 
markable flight, which was minutely described by Osburn (Zool. 
1860, pp. 6837-6841). 
PIRENET, said to be a local name of the SHELD-DRAKE. 
PIRREE, a name often given, from its cry, to a TERN. 
PITTA, from the Telugu Pitta, meaning a small Bird, latinized 
by Vieillot in 1816 (Analyse, p. 42) as the name of a genus, and 
since adopted by English ornithologists as the general name for a 
group of Birds, called by the French Bréves, and remarkable for their 
great beauty.2. For a long while the Pittas were commonly sup- 
1 Pipits can be distinguished from Larks by having the hind part of the 
‘‘ tarsus” undivided, while the Larks have it scutellated. 
2 In Ornithology the word is first found as part of the native name, ‘ Pon- 
nunky pitta” of a Bird, given in 1718 by Petiver, on the authority of Buckley, 
in the ‘‘ Mantissa” to Ray’s Synopsis (p. 195). This bird is the Pitta bengalensis 
of modern ornithologists, and is said by Jerdon (2. Jnd. i. p. 503) now to 
bear the Telugu name of Pona-inki. 
