RICHARD'S PIPIT. i:{.<) 



The whole length of the male bird is seven inches and 

 three-quarters. From the carpal bone to the end of the 

 longest primary quill-feather, three inches and five- eighths ; 

 the first four feathers of the wing are very nearly equal in 

 length, but the first is rather the longest, and the three next 

 in succession are each a very little shorter than that which 

 precedes it ; the fifth feather is a quarter of an inch 

 shorter than the fourth. 



These birds exhibit the green tinge on the upper surface, 

 and the reddish colour over the breast and flanks observed 

 periodically in other Pipits ; but the females are less rufous 

 than the males. 



The vignette at the foot of page 426 represents, of the 

 natural size, the feet of the four British species of the genus 

 Anthus, in the order in which they have been described here, 

 namely, No. 1, the Tree Pipit, No. 2, the Meadow Pipit, 

 No. 3, the Rock Pipit, and No. 4, Richard's Pipit, and 

 considerable modifications prevail in each : here, however, 

 the alteration in the form of the hind claw is accompanied 

 by a difference in the manners of the birds, witness the 

 arboreal habits in connection with the short hind claw of 

 the first, the Tree Pipit, and the decided terrestrial habits 

 in conjunction with the elongated hind claw in the last, or 

 Richard's Pipit. Mr. Vigors some years ago suggested the 

 propriety of removing Richard's Pipit from the genus 

 Anthus, and proposed for it the term Corydalla, but this 

 distinction has not, that I am aware, been adopted by 

 systematic writers. 



