114 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARV. 



twelve inches high, in exactly a similar place to that in which 

 the Sky-Lark often builds, made of dry grass lined with hair. 



Nest. On the ground, generally concealed under a clod of 

 earth or tuft of herbage, or under a bush ; sometimes in a bank 

 near a dried-up streamlet, or even in the open plains among the 

 growing crops. It is composed of dry grass, often intermixed 

 with a few stems of coarse herbage or straws, together with 

 roots, and lined with horse-hair, although in many cases fine 

 roots alone serve the purpose. 



Eggs. From four to six in number. The general colour is 

 very light, when compared with that of the eggs of the other 

 European Pipits. The ground-colour is white or greenish- 

 white, and the spotting varies in intensity and degree. In 

 some eggs the whole surface is covered with tiny dots of black 

 or blackish-brown, the grey underlying dots being scarcely per- 

 ceptible. On those which have the ground-colour greenish- 

 white, the spots are of a greenish-brown tint, and on those eggs 

 which incline to a creamy-white ground, the overlying spots are 

 reddish-brown, and, with the grey underlying spots, are dis 

 tributed all over the egg. Axis, 0-8-0-95 i ncn > diam., 0-65-0-7. 



THE WATER-PIPIT. ANTHUS SPIPOLETTA. 



Alauda spinoletta. Linn., S. N., i., p. 288 (1766). 



Anthus spipoletta. Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 581 (1874; nom. 

 emend.); B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 34(1883); Sharpe, 

 B. Brit. Cat. Mus., x., p. 592 (1885); Saunders, Man., 

 p. 133 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. B., pt. xviii. (1891). 



Anthus spinoktta, Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 335, pi. 140 (1874); 

 Seeb., Br. B., ii., p. 248 (1884). 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. Above light brown, the 

 mantle mottled with dusky centres to the feathers ; lower back 

 and rump uniform ; head and hind-neck ashy-grey, slightly 

 streaked with dusky on the crown ; a broad whitish eyebrow ; 

 cheeks and under surface of body pale rosy, extending over the 

 abdomen, without any streaks upon the chest ; lower abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts whitish ; wing-coverts tipped with dull 

 white ; eyebrows and lores isabelline ; flanks slightly streaked 

 with brown ; light pattern of outer tail-feather white. Total 



