312 ANTHUS NICHOLSONI. 



shot at Pothefstroom, June 15, 1870, which has the pen- 

 ultimate tail-feather with a clear pale triangular end as in 

 A. sordidus, a character I have never met with in the true 

 A. pyrrhonotus, but which is not uncommon in A. nicholsoni. 



Messrs. Butler, Feilden and Reid write : ''It is an exceed- 

 ingly common bird on the veldt in the upper portion of the 

 colony, and we obtained many specimens. Several nests were 

 taken near Newcastle and Ladysmith. From Butler's notes 

 we extract the following : — ' Found a nest near Newcastle, 

 on the 1st October, under a tussock of grass. It was well 

 concealed and composed of dry grass, lined with finer material 

 of the same description, cow-hair, horse-hair, &c, with a run 

 up to it on one side, so that it was necessary to stoop down 

 very low to see into it. Eggs three in number, fresh, white, 

 spotted all over with grey. Another nest, precisely similar 

 in composition and situation, at Sunday's river, on the 12th 

 October, contained three eggs slightly incubated.' " In the 

 Transvaal, according to Mr. Ayres : " This Pipit is distributed 

 during the winter months over the whole country, but more 

 plentifully on the high bare lands than in the bush or along 

 the Limpopo. It feeds on insects, has a low dipping flight, 

 and occasionally alights on low trees." He later on records 

 it as common in the Lydenburg district. 



The Tawny Plain-backed Pipit forms a good connecting 

 link between Nicholson's Pipit and the Cape Plain-backed 

 Pipit. On the other side A. nicholsoni connects this group of 

 African Pipits with A. sordidus and A. jerdoni. 



Anthus nicholsoni. 



Anthus nicholsoni, Sharpe, id. Cat. B. M. x. p. 553 (1885) Ondonga, 

 Gape Town, Sigonell, Eland's Post, King williams town, Neivcastle, 

 Bustenberg ; Bocage, Jorn. Lisb. 1893, p. 10 Ambaca, Caconda ; 

 Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 159 (1896) ; Stark, Faun. S. Afr. i. p. 249 

 (1900). 



