252 MOTACILLID^ ANTHUS 



Iris brown ; bill brown; legs and feet yellowish. 



Length 6*50 ; wing 3'50 ; tail 2-50 ; tarsus 1/05 ; culmen O55. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male in colour but is slightly 

 smaller. 



Distribution. This Pipit has a very wide range both in Africa 

 and Asia. In the former continent it is found over the greater part 

 of the country to the south of the Cune"ne and Zambesi Eivers, 

 while to the eastward it extends from the latter river as far north 

 as Egypt. In Asia it is a resident in every part of India and 

 Ceylon, and extends into Burmah, Malayia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo 

 and the Philippine Islands. In South Africa it is generally dis- 

 tributed over Cape Colony, being resident near Cape Town, 

 Swellendam, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Colesberg, Eland's 

 Post and elsewhere. In Natal it is a common and permanent 

 resident in the higher districts, and the same remark applies 

 to the Orange Free State. It is widely distributed and fairly 

 common in the Transvaal as well as in Matabili and Mashona- 

 lands as far north as the Zambesi. In Damara Land it appears 

 to be rare, as Andersson only obtained a single example. 



Habits. This bird is usually found in pairs. Like A. pijrrhono- 

 tus, it is fond of perching on trees, should there be any in the 

 neighbourhood, but it is frequently met with on the open veldt, 

 feeding, on the ground, on various insects and small seeds. It also 

 frequents the cattle kraals for the sake of the small beetles and 

 other insects it finds on the dung. It has a rough " chirping " call- 

 note and a rather sweet and pleasant song, which is generally 

 uttered from the branch of a tree or the top of an ant-hill or stone. 

 The nest is cup-shaped, built of dry grass, lined with finer grass 

 and hairs, by the side of a grass-tuft. The eggs, usually three in 

 number, are pale stone-colour, thickly mottled with purplish-brown 

 and red. They measure about 0-80 x 0-60. 



146. Anthus bocagii. Bocage's Pipit. 



Anthus pallescens, Bocage (nee Vigors), Jorn. Lisb. 1874, p. 52; id. 



Orn. Angola, p. 294, pi. 8, fig. 2 (.1881). 

 Anthus bocagii, Nicholson, Ibis, 1884, p. 469 ; Sharpe. Cat. B. M. x, 



p. 579 (1885) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p 12 (1896). 



Description. Adult. Like Anthus rufulus but paler ; above, 

 ash-brown mottled with darker brown ; the rump and upper tail- 



*7 f J - C</yixr>vv ACt^-vflx 'ijLA^<^(7**Aj4 



'6' 



