ANTHUS. 217 



Genus ANTHUS. 



Linnaeus and some of the other earlier ornithologists included 

 the Pipits amongst the Larks in the genus Alauda. Bechstein appears 

 to have been the first writer who separated them from this genus. In 

 the second edition of his ' Naturgeschichte Deutschlands ' (published in 

 1807), vol. iii. p. 704, he established the genus Anthus, placing the 

 Meadow-Pipit as the first species of his new genus. This bird has con- 

 sequently been generally accepted as the type. 



There are no structural characters by which the Pipits may be distin- 

 guished from the Wagtails, and even in the pattern of colour they have 

 many characters in common. In both genera the bills are slender and 

 insectivorous. The Wagtails generally have dark feet, and the Pipits pale 

 feet ; but in both genera the hind claw is sometimes short and much 

 curved, and sometimes long and only slightly curved. The general colour 

 of the upper parts varies in the Wagtails from brownish green to slate- 

 grey and black, whilst in the Pipits it is always brown of some shade, 

 either greenish or sandy. In the Pipits the head is generally of the same 

 colour as the back, and the feathers of both have more or less conspicuous 

 dark centres ; whilst in the Wagtails the head is often quite different in 

 colour from the back, but each feather of both is uniform in colour. The 

 pattern of colour of the wing is nearly the same in both genera. The 

 Pipits have the quill-feathers a uniform brown, without the white bases 

 which are often found in the Wagtails; but in both genera the outside 

 webs have narrow pale edges and the inside webs broad pale edges. In 

 both genera the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries are darker than 

 the quills, the median wing-coverts have pale tips, and the greater wing- 

 coverts and innermost secondaries pale margins to the outside webs. 

 In both genera the two centre tail-feathers are generally concolorons 

 with the back, and the rest very dark brown, with the exception of 

 the two outermost on each side, which are almost wholly white in 

 the Wagtails, but vary much in this respect in the Pipits. The under- 

 parts of the Wagtails are either white or yellow, shading into brown or 

 grey on the flanks, with black on the throat or breast in some species, 

 but spotted on these parts only in the young; whilst the underparts 

 of the Pipits are uniform light or dark buff, darkest on the flanks, 

 occasionally without spots in the adult, but often streaked on the sides of 

 the throat and across the breast and along the flanks in the adult, and 



