Season. 



154 



from Eastbourne built of seaweed, mixed with tbe egg capsules of the whelk 

 {Buccinum undatiim). Dixon noticed a large gull's feather in the lining 

 of a nest on the Fames. 

 Eggs. 4 — 5 in number, but Aplin found a nest with 6 highly incubated 



eggs in Carnarvonshire. In colour they vary from greenish white, closely 

 freckled with greyish brown {Motacilla type), to dirty white, mottled and 

 sometimes almost obscured by olive or reddish brown, with grey underlying 

 markings. In some eggs the markings are bold and at times they are 

 concentrated in a zone or cap at the big end. One egg of this type in 

 the British Museum is almost white, with a dark brown cap. Erythristic 

 varieties are not uncommon. Ussher has taken eggs with specks of red 

 and violet on a pinkish ground in Kerry {Anthus trivialis type); on the 

 W. coast of Great Britain the red spotted type occurs occasionally, F. C. 

 Selous took a clutch with dark red spots and a few grey underlying marks 

 on a bright salmon pink ground in the Orkneys, and a pale brick dust 

 coloured form has been taken on Foula (Eagle Clarke). 



Breeding Two broods appear to be usually reared, and the first eggs are laid 



in April (April 17, hard sat eggs on the I. of Man, F. S. Graves; May 7, 

 young in nest, Wexford, Poole), but most birds lay during the last days 

 of April and the first half of May, while the best time for eggs of the 

 second brood is in the first week of June in the S., and the second or 

 third in the N. of the British Isles. 



Measure- Average of 100 eggs from the British Isles measured by the writer, 



21.29X15.91 mm.. Max. 24X16.2 (S. Kilda) and 20.5X17.2 mm., 

 Min. 17.8 X 15.3 (Waterford) and 20.5 X 14.1 mm. As a rule they are 

 decidedly larger than eggs of A. pratensis, but as will be seen the measure- 

 ments of the two species overlap. A. H. Evans has clutches of remarkably 

 small eggs, authenticated by himself and T. E. Buckley, which are quite 

 indistinguishable from typical Meadow Pipits' eggs. Average weight of 

 4 Scotch eggs, 160 mg. Four full eggs from Ireland average 3.054 g. 

 (Foster). 



e. Fseroe Rock Pipit, A. spinoletta kleiiisclimidti Hart. 



Local Name: Fseroes: Oraatujtlingur. 



A. spinoletta kleinschmidti. Hartert, Vog. Pal. Fauna, p. 284. 



Breeding Range: The Fseroes. 



Feilden describes this race as extremely abundant, though confined 

 to the coast. Bunyard however observed a pair or two in the mountains 

 at a moderate height in 1905. In nesting habits it resembles our British 

 bird, and lays 4 — 5 eggs, which vary in much the same way, but there 

 is not a single erythristic specimen among the very large series in the 

 British Museum collected by Miiller, and one or two eggs show a dark 

 hair streak at the big end. Miiller took a nest with 4 eggs on April 29, 



ments. 



