248 MOTACILLID^E ANTHUS 



breeding quarters in Europe towards the end of March or beginning 

 of April, and departs again for the south in September and October. 

 During the breeding-season the male is fond of uttering his Canary- 

 like song from the top of a tree or while hovering in the air over 

 his perch. This Pipit feeds on insects and small seeds. Its nest, 

 placed on the ground, often amongst the herbage of a steep bank, 

 is cup shaped, built of dry grass, moss and rootlets, lined vith finer 

 grass and hair. The eggs, from four to six in number, van greatly 

 in colour ; some are reddish-brown spotted and dotted ovei with 

 deeper reddish-brown ; others greyish white <pctted and mottled 

 with dark brown ; whilst others are streaked with purplish-black. 

 They average 0-80 x O60. 



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142. Anthus brachyurus. Short-tailed Pipit. 



Anthus brachyurus, Sundevall, (Efvers, Stockholm, 1850, p. 100 ; 



Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 122 (1867) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. 8. Afr. 



pp. 530, 852 (1884); id. Cat. B. M. x, p. 551 (1885); Shelley, B. 



Afr. i, p. 12 (1896). 

 Anthus calthropae, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 121 (1867). 



Description. Adult male in. summer. Above, dark brown, the 

 feathers with paler edges ; lesser wing- coverts brown, the middle 

 and greater darker brown edged with buff ; quills dark brown edged 

 with olive, the outer edge of the outer primary white ; tail-feathers 

 dark brown edged with light brown, the two outer with dull white ; 

 crown - feathers dark brown with fulvous edges ; lores, eyelids, 

 ear-coverts and cheeks buff, the ear-coverts streaked, the cheeks 

 spotted, with brown ; lower surface of body white, the throat and 

 chest tinged with buff, the lower throat spotted, the chest streaked, 

 with blackish ; thighs fulvous ; under tail-coverts buff centred with 

 dark brown ; axillaries yellowish ; under wing-coverts buff ; under 

 surface of quills dusky, their inner margins broadly grey. 



Iris hazel ; upper mandible brown, the lower paler ; legs and 

 feet pale brown. 



Length 4-75 ; wing 2-60 ; tail 1-65 ; tarsus 0-65 ; culmen 0'45. 



Adult female. Differs from the male in being olive-yellow on 

 the sides of neck and chest. 



Young. Above, rufous-brown streaked with black, the rump 

 unstreaked ; the wing and tail-feathers with rufous margins. 



Distribution. Natal in summer ; the Southern and Eastern 



