324 ANTHUS PRATENSIS. 



Blue Nile, and Antinori and Dr. Ragazzi eleven others in this 

 district from February to December, showing it to be a 

 resident here. Further north Riippell procured the type of 

 his A. cinnamomeus at Simen, and von Heuglin found the 

 species in pairs in the highlands of Central Abyssinia. There 

 is a specimen in the British Museum from Malta, which is the 

 furthest northern range known to me for this species. 



Anthus pratensis. 



Anthus pratensis (Linn.), Sharpe, Cat. M. B. x. p. 580 (1835) ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. I. No. 167 (1896). 



Adult Male. Hind claw not shorter than the hind toe but about equal 

 to it. This coupled with the rather broader dark centres to the feathers of 

 the crown and mantle, are the only characters I can find for distinguishing 

 the species from A. trivialis. Total length 5-7 inches, culmen 0'45, wing 3'0, 

 tail 2-3, tarsus 0-8, hind claw 045. Avington, $, 7. 1. 87 (Shelley). 



The Meadow-Pipit ranges from Abyssinia over the whole 

 of Europe and eastward into Turkestan. 



The only authority I find for admitting the Meadow Pipit 

 into the Ethiopian fauna rests on a specimen procured by 

 Lefebvre at Adowa in April, and on von Heuglin's statement 

 that he met with it at Grondar in February, and that it occurs 

 in Egypt and Abyssinia during the winter months singly or 

 in small flocks, frequenting the clover fields, moist ground 

 and swamps. That he never met with it in large flocks is 

 probably due to its occurring merely as a straggler in tropical 

 north-east Africa. 



It is by no means improbable that the specimens referred 

 to this species by Lefebvre and Heuglin were really examples 

 of A. cervinus in winter plumage, for as yet I have not seen a 

 specimen from Africa of our Meadow Pipit. 



