THEE PIPIT. 191 



Male; weight, about five drachms and three quarters; length, 

 about six inches and a quarter to six inches and a half; bill, 

 dark brown, all the base of the lower mandible and the edges 

 of the upper one yellow brown. It is rather flattened out at 

 the base, and a brown streak passes backwards and downwards 

 from it. Iris, deep brown, over it is a whitish band: there 

 are a few short bristly feathers at the base of the bill; head 

 on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, olive greyish 

 brown, the centre of each feather being darker than the edge; 

 chin and throat, pale brownish white or brownish yellow on 

 its sides, with a tinge of rufous in the spring, as is the 

 breast in front, on which are numerous small spots of dark 

 brown; on the sides the spots turn into streaks, and are 

 darker: the ground colour of the sides is olive brown, and 

 below it is pale brown, tinged with dull white: the autumnal 

 moult, which takes place in August, gives them a yellowish 

 rufous tint; back, as the nape: with the autumnal moult all 

 the upper parts assume a greenish olive tint. 



The wings expand to the width of eleven inches and a 

 quarter, and reach to within an inch and a quarter of the 

 tip of the tail; greater wing coverts, dark brown, broadly 

 edged with pale brown or greyish white, most apparently 

 after the autumnal moult; lesser wing coverts, blackish brown, 

 edged and tipped with pale brown or buff greyish white, the 

 light-coloured ends of both forming bars across the wing, 

 most distinctly after the moult; primaries, dark brown; the 

 first is the longest, but all the first three are nearly equal 

 in length, the second very nearly as long as the first, and 

 the third as the second; secondaries, dark brown, more broadlv 

 edged with a paler tint; tertiaries, dark brown, long, also 

 with a broad outer edge of pale brown. The tail, which is 

 rather long, has the outside feather on each side brown; the 

 narrow outer web, and part of the inner one, in a wedge 

 shape, dull white tinged with brown; the next feather is also 

 brown, with only a small patch of dull white at the end of 

 the inner web; all the other feathers blackish brown, edged 

 with lighter, except the two middle ones, which are greyish 

 brown, having lighter margins than the rest; upper tail 

 coverts, olive grey brown, without the dark markings on the 

 centre of the feathers, Legs and toes, pale yellowish brown 

 or grey; claws, pale dusky brown, the hind claw considerably 

 curved, and shorter than the hind toe. 



The female resembles the male in plumage, but she is 



