596 MOTACILLID^E. 



whole length of the inner web, and the shaft tinged with 

 brown at the base and at the tip ; the next pair similarly 

 marked but with the dark patch extending nearly to the 

 tip, the shaft entirely brown ; the remaining feathers are 

 brown, the middle pair, which are shorter than the others, 

 broadly and the next pair narrowly edged with light tawny ; 

 the chin and throat dull tawny-white, becoming deeper on 

 the sides of the neck and on the breast and flanks, and then 

 again paler on the belly, lower tail-coverts and thighs ; from 

 the lower corner of the bill there runs on each side a short 

 dusky stripe, and a few indistinct dusky streaks are dis- 

 persed over the breast : legs, toes and claws yellowish-brown, 

 the hind claw moderately developed and but slightly curved. 



The whole length of the bird is about six inches and 

 a half, and of the wing from the carpal joint about three 

 inches and three-quarters, but the dimensions are somewhat 

 variable as is also the intensity of coloration. The female 

 is similar to the male, but is often without the streaks on 

 the breast. The young of the year are said to be browner 

 than the adults, and to have their feathers edged and tipped 

 with a lighter shade, so as to present what bird-fanciers call 

 a more " spangled " appearance. 



Though ornithologists have pretty generally agreed to 

 recognize in this bird the Alauda campestris of Linnseus*, 

 his diagnosis of that species must be admitted to be any- 

 thing but diagnostic, while his description (Faun. Sv. Ed. 2, 

 p. 77) does not fit any known Lark or Pipit. Yet his choice 

 of a trivial name was very happy, for no European species 

 of Pipit seems to affect a champaign country, in the strictest 

 sense of the term, so exclusively, and Temminck's plea for 

 changing the epithet to rufescens on the ground that 

 campestris may be confounded with pratensis, is one that 

 (the law of priority apart) no scholar would for a moment 

 allow. A few writers have seen in this species the " Willow 



* The chief exceptions are Bechstein who, while calling this bird Anthus 

 campestris, considered the Alauda campestris of Linnaeus to be A. spipoletta, 

 and Vieillot (N. Diet. d'H. Nat. Ed. 2, xxvi. p. 497) who thought Linnaeus's 

 bird was a hen Wheatear ! 



