244 MOTACILLID.E ANTHUS 



Anthus butleri, SJielley, P. Z. S. t 1882, p. 336. pi. 18; Butler, Feilden 

 and Eeid, Zoologist, 1882, p. 336. 



Description. Adult male. Above, feathers of crown and upper 

 surface of body dark brown edged with buff; wings dark brown, 

 the outer primary edged with white, the other quills and coverts 

 with olive-yellow or buff; tail-feathers dark brown edged with buff, 

 the outermost with the outer web and tip white, the next tipped 

 with white ; lores, eyebrow and eye-ring white ; ear-coverts white 

 streaked with brown ; cheeks buff ; throat whitish ; breast huffish 

 at the sides, pale yellow in the centre, with narrow shaft-streaks of 

 brown ; sides of body buff streaked with dark brown ; abdomen 

 whitish ; under tail-coverts fulvous streaked with dark brown ; 

 edge of wing and axillaries pale olive-yellow; under wing-coverts 

 dark brown edged with white. 



Iris brown ; bill pale brown ; legs and feet yellowish-brown. 

 Length 6'75 ; wing 3'25 ; tail 2-75 ; tarsus 0'95 ; culmen 0-60. 

 Adult female. Kesembles the male in plumage. 

 Distribution. From Eastern Cape Colony through the Orange 

 Free State and Upper Natal into Zululand and the South-eastern 

 Transvaal. Resident throughout its range, and very common on 

 the higher veldts of Natal and the Southern Transvaal. 



Habits. The following account of this Pipit is from an essay 

 on the Birds of Natal by Major Butler and Fielden and Capt. Eeid, 

 in the Zoologist for 1882, p. 336, under the heading A. butleri 

 (Shelley). "Fielden shot the first specimen on June 6, and Eeid 

 met with it at the Ingagane Eiver in July, and obtained three 

 specimens. Butler afterwards obtained a fine male, nearly in full 

 plumage on November 9, at Newcastle, where it was by no means 

 common. Those obtained at the Ingagane were very local, and 

 only to be found on one particular open flat near the main drift." 

 In their movements and flight they much resemble Wagtails. 

 Butler " also notes that it is a bird of skulking habits, seeking con- 

 cealment in the grass much more than the other Pipits, especially 

 when pursued, lying close, and being consequently often difficult to 

 flush a second time." 



I met with this Pipit in numbers on the veldt near Nottingham 

 Eoad, in Natal, in October and November, 1893. They were in 

 pairs but had apparently not commenced nesting. A male had 

 its stomach filled with the remains of mantides and small beetles. 

 At this season the cocks were frequently to be heard singing from 

 the tops of ant-hills, or occasionally as they flew from one resting 



