ANTHUS. 307 



fulvous or sandy buff, the breast with a few ill-defined and pale 

 brown streaks. 



Iris dark brown ; legs and feet yellowish flesh ; bill dark brown 

 above, flesh-colour below (Hume Coll.). 



Length about 8*5 ; tail #6 ; wing 4'1 ; tarsus 1*1 ; bill from 

 gape *9 ; hind claw about *45. 



This species very closely resembles A. sordidus, Riipp., from 

 Palestine, Arabia, and Africa, but is much larger and more brightly 

 coloured than that bird. 



Agrodroma similis of Jerdon was founded on a single specimen, 

 the locality of which was not mentioned in the original description, 

 but was subsequently, in the ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology/ 

 stated to be Jalna. In the 'Birds of India' the Jalna bird was 

 referred to A. sordida, the name there adopted for the present 

 species. 



Distribution. A winter visitor to the plains of the north-west of 

 India, extending to the east as far as the Sikhim terai and Mughal 

 Sarai, and to the south as far as Jvhandesh, Jalna, and Nagpur. 

 This Pipit retires in summer to the Himalayas, where it breeds 

 from Hazara to Sikhim, up to about 6000 feet elevation. The range 

 of this bird extends to Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and Persia. 



Habits, fyc. Breeds at Murree and in Afghanistan, below 

 6000 feet, from May to July, making a rough nest of grass on a 

 hill-side, and laying four eggs, which are brownish or greyish white 

 marked with brown and purple, and measure about '85 by '63. 



845. Anthus richardi. Richard's Pipit. 



Anthus richardi, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxvi, p. 491 (1818) ; 



Blyth, Cat. p. 135 j Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 355 j Sharpe, Cat. B. M. 



x, p. 5G4. 

 Corydalla richardi (Vieill.), Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 231 ; Brooks, S. F. i, 



p. 358 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 606 ; Hume, Cat. no. 599 ; 



Legge, Birds Ceyl p. 621 j Gates, B. B. i, p. 166. 



The Large Marsh-Pipit, Jerd. ; Pulla puraki, Meta kdlie, Tam. 



Fig. 85. Foot of A. rwhardi. 



Coloration. Upper plumage fulvous-brown, llir leathers centred 

 with blackish, the rump more uniform; wings dark hrmvn mar- 



x ^ 



