586 MOTACILLID^E. 



PASSERES. MOTACILLID^E. 



ANTHUS OBSCURUS (Latham*). 



THE ROCK-PIPIT. 



Anthus petrosus}. 



THE ROCK-PIPIT, in some of its habits, its flight and song, 

 so much resembles the two commoner species of this country 

 that it was for a long time confounded with them. Pennant 

 in the first edition of his ' British Zoology,' published in 1766, 

 figured (pi. P 1. fig. 3) a bird, shot on the rocks of the 

 Caernarvonshire coast, which was doubtless of this species, 

 but he did not distinguish it from the ordinary Titlark, and 

 Walcottin 1789 (Synops. Br. Birds, ii. p. 192) seems to have 

 been its original describerl. He called it the Sea-Lark, and 

 rightly enough said it was found on the coast of Devon all 



* Alauda obscura, Latham, Index Ornithologicus, ii. p. 494 (1790). 



t Alauda petrosa, Montagu, Trans. Linn. Soc. iv. p. 41 (1798). 



There is, however, no little confusion on this point, and the precise share 

 which Walcott, Latham, Lewin and Montagu took in the discovery, can hardly 

 at this distance of time be apportioned, for some of their accounts are slightly 

 contradictory. 



